Demand Uptick Lifted Booking Holdings (BKNG) in Q2

Thu, Aug 21, 2025, 8:44 AM 2 min read

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Equity markets faced significant volatility in the second quarter, fueled by the announcement and subsequent pause of the "Liberation Day" tariffs. Against this backdrop, the fund’s Investor Class ARTLX, Advisor Class APDLX, and Institutional Class APHLX returned 5.99%, 5.96%, and 5.96%, respectively, in the second quarter compared to a 3.79% return for the Russell 1000® Value Index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the strategy to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Value Fund highlighted stocks such as Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG). Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) provides online travel and restaurant booking services.  The one-month return of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) was -0.18%, and its shares gained 49.67% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 20, 2025, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) stock closed at $5,639.78 per share, with a market capitalization of $182.785 billion.

Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) and Lam Research were the top contributors in the consumer discretionary and information technology sectors, respectively. Booking Holdings is the largest global online travel agency and the corporate entity behind Booking.com, priceline.com and OpenTable, among other popular online brands. Booking has continued to benefit from strong demand for travel."

A fast-paced travel agent making a bookings for a family vacation package.

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 102 hedge fund portfolios held Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) at the end of the first quarter, which was 99 in the previous quarter. Booking Holdings Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BKNG) second quarter revenue grew 16% year-over- year to $6.8 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.