Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Earns Outperform Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) in a research note published on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $88.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock.

NDAQ has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $92.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Nasdaq from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Nasdaq from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Nasdaq from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Argus boosted their price objective on Nasdaq from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.87.

Nasdaq Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NDAQ opened at $81.07 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $75.11 and a 200 day moving average of $68.04. Nasdaq has a fifty-two week low of $53.62 and a fifty-two week high of $81.35. The firm has a market cap of $46.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.05. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 13.67%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Nasdaq will post 2.79 EPS for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 57.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, insider Pc Nelson Griggs sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.71, for a total value of $454,260.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 215,563 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,320,274.73. The trade was a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeremy Skule sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.92, for a total transaction of $935,040.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 114,580 shares in the company, valued at $8,928,073.60. This represents a 9.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 49,459 shares of company stock worth $3,811,808. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nasdaq

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd increased its position in shares of Nasdaq by 94.8% during the second quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Claro Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Focused Wealth Management Inc bought a new stake in Nasdaq during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

About Nasdaq

Nasdaq, Inc operates as a technology company that serves capital markets and other industries worldwide. It operates in three segments: Capital Access Platforms, Financial Technology, and Market Services. The Capital Access Platforms segment sells and distributes historical and real-time market data; and develops and licenses Nasdaq-branded indices and financial products.