One of the victims of the dot-com bubble will do a stock split. They've gained 16831% in 23 years.

American online tour operator Booking Holdings, which was seriously damaged during the dot-com crash, has decided to split its securities in order to lower their price. Over a quarter of a century, the company's shares have risen so much that they have become too expensive for some investors, Bloomberg writes.

Booking Holdings, which owns booking service Booking.com, will conduct a stock split on April 2, as a result of which shareholders will receive 25 securities in exchange for each existing one - fast-growing businesses do this so that the price of one share is not too high for investors, Bloomberg reports. In 2003, the aggregator, then operating under the Priceline.com brand, did exactly the opposite: it arranged a reverse stock split with a 1-to-6 ratio to visually increase the value of securities.

However, since then, the rapid growth of business in the field of online tourism has raised Booking Holdings shares by 16831% (relative to the level of 2003, when Booking Holdings shares were traded at about $25, the company's securities rose in value 170 times). On February 18, the securities of the service closed at $4269.99 per unit - such high quotes are rare even for the U.S. stock market, states Bloomberg. The split will reduce their price to about $165.

Wall Street analysts have shown a mixed approach to Booking Holdings' stock valuation in early 2026, MarketScreener data shows. In January, Wells Fargo, Rothschild & Co and HSBC raised their target prices on the company's securities by 7.8% (to $5954), 3.1% (to $6600) and 2.8% (to $7656), respectively, maintaining their previous ratings. At the same time, several investment companies and banks lowered their targets: Argus and Bernstein cut them by 1.5% and 0.5% (to $6400 and $5433), while Goldman Sachs and Jefferies cut them by 2.1% and 3.4% (to $5920 and $5600), also leaving their ratings unchanged.

In February, analysts' focus on Booking shares shifted to upgrades: Gordon Haskett improved its recommendation from "Hold" (Hold) to "Buy" (Buy), although it lowered its target price by 4.7% (to $5440), and Mizuho raised its outlook from neutral to "above market" (Outperform, corresponding to a buy recommendation) with a target of $6000. UBS made a conservative revaluation, lowering the target price of the securities by 2.9% to $6608.

According to FactSet, the Wall Street consensus rating on Booking Holdings shares is now "above market" with a complete lack of sell tips, and the average target price of $6078.2 per paper indicates a 42% upside potential for the stock over the next year.

The most expensive shares on the U.S. stock market are securities of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Investment Company. It is known for the fact that it has never split its main shares (class A), because of which their value is now more than $700,000 per unit. However, in order to make the securities available to a wide range of investors, the company issued a second type of shares (class B), which are traded at a much more democratic price.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor