Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Issues Positive Forecast for Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Stock Price

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) had its price target lifted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $86.00 to $91.00 in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

NDAQ has been the topic of several other research reports. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Nasdaq from $81.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Nasdaq from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $82.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, William Blair started coverage on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.40.

Nasdaq Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NDAQ opened at $77.70 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.97. 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 has a 52 week low of $54.90 and a 52 week high of $83.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.86.

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

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 57.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nasdaq news, insider Pc Nelson Griggs sold 5,742 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.34, for a total transaction of $444,086.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 205,821 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,918,196.14. The trade was a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.92, for a total transaction of $935,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 114,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,928,073.60. This trade represents a 9.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 49,459 shares of company stock worth $3,811,808 in the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cumberland Partners Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the third quarter worth $10,400,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 49.8% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 164,179 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,987,000 after purchasing an additional 54,594 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,701,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Nasdaq by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,358,843 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $142,144,000 after purchasing an additional 174,778 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,223,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $235,343,000 after purchasing an additional 313,079 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

Nasdaq Company Profile

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.