Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Lowers Stock Position in NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) by 44.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,785 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,233 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NICE were worth $556,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in NICE in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in NICE during the third quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its position in NICE by 25.2% during the first quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 298 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in NICE by 146.9% during the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 474 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Buck Wealth Strategies LLC grew its position in NICE by 1,711.1% during the third quarter. Buck Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 489 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. 63.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on NICE. Northland Securities began coverage on shares of NICE in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $300.00 price target on the stock. Barclays increased their price target on shares of NICE from $283.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of NICE from $225.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. TheStreet upgraded shares of NICE from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of NICE from $283.00 to $334.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $291.55.

NICE Stock Performance

Shares of NICE stock opened at $230.95 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $241.06 and a 200 day moving average of $207.21. NICE Ltd. has a 52 week low of $149.54 and a 52 week high of $270.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.37, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $2.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.10. NICE had a return on equity of 13.29% and a net margin of 14.23%. The company had revenue of $623.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $616.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that NICE Ltd. will post 8.21 earnings per share for the current year.

NICE Company Profile

NICE Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud platforms for AI-driven digital business solutions worldwide. It offers CXone, a cloud native open platform; Enlighten, an AI engine for the customer engagement market; and smart self service enable organizations to address consumers' needs; and journey orchestration solutions that empower organizations to connect and route customers to deal with the customer's request, and connects them using real time AI-based routing.