LPL Financial LLC Cuts Stock Position in Nice (NASDAQ:NICE)

LPL Financial LLC cut its holdings in shares of Nice (NASDAQ:NICE) by 27.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,618 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 7,518 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Nice were worth $3,025,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Nice by 56.0% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 9,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,540,000 after purchasing an additional 3,584 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in Nice during the first quarter worth about $513,000. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Nice by 17.2% during the first quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 11,883 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,746 shares during the period. Heritage Family Offices LLP purchased a new stake in Nice during the first quarter worth about $584,000. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Nice during the first quarter worth about $1,360,000. 63.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nice Stock Up 4.2%

Shares of NICE opened at $133.16 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $160.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $158.84. The company has a market capitalization of $8.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.98. Nice has a 52-week low of $127.00 and a 52-week high of $200.65.

Nice (NASDAQ:NICE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The technology company reported $3.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.99 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $726.71 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $713.18 million. Nice had a return on equity of 17.64% and a net margin of 18.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.64 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Nice will post 9.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NICE. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Nice from $202.00 to $193.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Nice in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Nice from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 26th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $182.00 target price (up from $153.00) on shares of Nice in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $161.00 target price on shares of Nice in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.25.

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.