Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $103.1333.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $108.00 price target on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Nasdaq from $104.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Nasdaq from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, January 12th.

Nasdaq Trading Down 0.8%

Nasdaq stock opened at $84.83 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $95.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $92.64. Nasdaq has a 52-week low of $64.84 and a 52-week high of $101.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.37 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 16.90% and a net margin of 21.77%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.95%.

Insider Transactions at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, CEO Adena T. Friedman sold 300,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.91, for a total value of $29,073,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,924,903 shares in the company, valued at $186,542,349.73. The trade was a 13.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP John Zecca sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.01, for a total transaction of $450,045.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 125,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,568,656.74. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 604,500 shares of company stock valued at $58,440,045 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nasdaq

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 33.5% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 27,274,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,438,897,000 after acquiring an additional 6,840,735 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Nasdaq during the 2nd quarter worth about $406,823,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Nasdaq by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,648,406 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,275,902,000 after purchasing an additional 3,848,406 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 261.7% in the 2nd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 2,690,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $240,556,000 after purchasing an additional 1,946,479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Nasdaq by 4,365.0% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,641,123 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $146,749,000 after buying an additional 1,604,368 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

Nasdaq Company Profile

Nasdaq, Inc is a global financial technology company that operates one of the world’s leading electronic securities exchanges and provides a broad array of products and services to capital markets participants. Its core activities include operating the Nasdaq Stock Market and other trading venues, developing and supplying market technology and matching engines to exchanges and trading firms, licensing market data and indices, and offering clearing, trade execution and post-trade solutions. The company also provides market surveillance, risk management and regulatory technology used by exchanges and regulators.

Founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) as the first electronic stock market, Nasdaq has evolved into a diversified marketplace and technology provider.