Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG)

Booking.com is one of their divisions. 600,000 booking per night around the world. Growing at 26% and trading at 23 times earnings. A virally expanding company.

The 1 year chart shows a nice consolidation. He suspects that this may just be taking a pause. The support of around $1200 is most definitely being held. Looks like a healthy consolidation within an uptrend. He would probably buy it on any significant pullback to the trendline.

Getting to a level where he is starting to feel a little less comfortable. It’s up around 20X earnings, which is stretching the valuation. Also, one of the areas that he would be concerned about would be the emergence of these virtual “rental by owner” properties, were people, looking for vacation, are looking for more of an established place to visit and stay in. Thinks there will be some competition on the vacationers’ side.

(A Top Pick April 11/13. Up 55.85%.) You have to distinguish between price and value. First bought the stock in 2005 at $19 and sold it in 2010 for $243 and then re-entered a year or 2 ago at $680-$690. When he first bought the stock in 2005, it was trading at about 27X earnings and today it is trading at about 18X expected next year’s earnings. Metrics are just outstanding with last quarter’s gross bookings up 39% and earnings were up 31%. They have 420,000 hotels worldwide signed on to their website.

Fantastic company. Bookings are up 39% year over year. 271 million rooms booked last year. A pure growth story. They are a cheaper stock today than when he bought it way back, on an earnings basis. High priced stocks don’t necessarily mean expensive stocks.

Has great growth at 25%-30%. It is in the retail space but enabled by technology. A wonderful company.

(A Top Pick April 11/13.) Reduced his holdings on Nov 27/13 at $1190. This was risk management to maintain a portfolio balance.

This was a Top Pick on April 11/13. Bought this in the high $600s and sold a piece of it at $1190. Nothing to do with the company. This has to do with risk management that he uses to make sure one position doesn’t dominate the portfolio. Still loves the company.

This is one of those fast money plays that hedge funds and traders like. He thinks you have to wait for some sort of meaningful correction before getting interested.

Thinks it is good value. It is expensive. Got back in about 6 months ago. He saw better valuation than when he owned it at $19. Continues to hold it. It is good value here. Expanding margins and a great company. The business model is incredibly scalable.

Expects earnings to grow in excess of 20% for foreseeable future. Trading at 23X historical earnings and 18X 2013 estimates, which he thinks will be $38. Fantastic growth story.

An online site booking for travel. You want to consider that 50% of revenue are derived from international businesses and most of that is really focused on Europe. One of their strategies is trying to increase their North American exposure and increasing revenue that way. Because of risks around Europe, he is not a big fan of this. Trading at 21X forward earnings and a growth rate at 19, not expensive but not cheap either.

Likes this one. Trading at 17X earnings. Expects that next year it will earn $37. It doesn’t really matter what the price of the stock is, it is the relationship between the price and the fundamentals. Growing well.

Very efficient model and very well managed. Recently fallen down a little bit. Only trading around 20X earnings with a 21% annual earnings growth expectation forecast. Pretty fair value at a 1X PEG ratio. Likes the stock.

Has $31 a share in earnings so is trading very reasonably. Sold his holdings in late 2010 at $244 a share. Sold it because it had moved over $10 billion of market capitalization and no longer qualified for his small cap portfolio. This is a great buy today because of the earnings progression and is trading at about 18X earnings.