On Monday, February 19th, Michael McHale pitched Booking Holdings (at the time of the pitch known as The Priceline Group) to be added to the Consumer Discretionary sector holdings. Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is the world’s leading provider of online travel and related accommodation services. The company is made up primarily of six independently operated brands: booking.com, KAYAK, priceline.com, agoda.com, rentalcars.com, and OpenTable. Michael predicts strong growth in the company’s agency and advertising sectors, along with stable growth in their merchant sector. The travel industry has been growing globally at consistently high rates for the past two decades, and experts believe that this growth will continue into the future. Michael believes that Booking Holdings is the best-positioned company to capitalize on this growth. He also cites that a growing consumer trend of spending more on experiences such as travel and less on material goods would be a positive driver for Booking’s growth. Michael proposed to buy 6 shares of BKNG, financed by selling 108 shares of XLY, the Consumer Discretionary sector ETF. The motion passed unanimously.