5 Best Growth Stocks to Buy According to Ray Dalio

2. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 93

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG), the American travel firm, is one of the best growth stocks in Ray Dalio’s portfolio. Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates boosted its stake in the company by 1333% in Q2 2022, holding 45,094 shares worth $78.8 million. In Q2 2022, gross travel bookings at Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) came in at $34.5 billion, an increase of 57% from the prior year quarter.

DA Davidson analyst Tom White on September 12 reaffirmed a Neutral rating on Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) and lowered the price target on the shares to $2,150 from $2,300. The analyst updated his model to account for the recent momentum from the rebound in global travel demand, which he also sees as being negated by the broader macro and inflation-related slowdowns in travel spending next year.

Among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Harris Associates is the leading stakeholder of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG), with 616,383 shares worth over $1 billion. Overall, 93 hedge funds were long Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) at the end of Q2 2022, compared to 99 funds in the prior quarter. 

Here is what Matrix Asset Advisors specifically said about Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“We started a new position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) a leading global online travel company. Bookings has the largest market share in the online travel agency business through its Bookings.com, Priceline.com, Agoda, Kayak, OpenTable, Rentalcars, and Etraveli franchises. Before Covid, BKNG was growing at a double-digit rate with earnings reaching $102 per share in 2019. The company’s business was hit hard during Covid but remained profitable. As global economies emerge from Covid, the travel business and Bookings have recovered quickly but the stock has been a casualty of the NASDAQ sell-off. The company has a strong balance sheet and shareholder-oriented management. We think the share price decline provided a good entry point for this high-quality company in an industry with strong growth prospects.”