Nasdaq, Inc. $NDAQ Shares Acquired by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) by 712.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,383 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Nasdaq were worth $929,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 worth $5,275,902,000 after purchasing an additional 3,848,406 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 7.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,619,192 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,735,318,000 after buying an additional 1,404,348 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 11.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,044,521 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $446,188,000 after buying an additional 532,775 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 2.9% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,198,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,367,000 after buying an additional 116,542 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 55.7% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 3,535,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $316,515,000 after buying an additional 1,264,975 shares during the last quarter. 72.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NDAQ shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $108.00 price target on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $109.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Nasdaq from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $105.00 to $106.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $103.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP John Zecca sold 4,500 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.01, for a total transaction of $450,045.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 125,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,568,656.74. The trade was a 3.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Adena T. Friedman sold 300,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.91, for a total transaction of $29,073,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,924,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $186,542,349.73. This represents a 13.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 510,951 shares of company stock valued at $47,592,996 over the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Nasdaq Price Performance

NASDAQ:NDAQ opened at $86.65 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $86.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $89.77. The firm has a market cap of $49.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. Nasdaq, Inc. has a one year low of $64.84 and a one year high of $101.79.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 16.90% and a net margin of 21.77%.The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 3.18 EPS for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is presently 34.95%.

Nasdaq 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.