Raymond James Issues Positive Forecast for Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Stock Price

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) had its target price boosted by Raymond James from $83.00 to $84.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on NDAQ. William Blair began coverage on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. 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 report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $81.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $87.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.60.

Nasdaq Stock Performance

Shares of Nasdaq stock opened at $75.88 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $43.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.80. Nasdaq has a fifty-two week low of $54.90 and a fifty-two week high of $83.77.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.17 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 13.67% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Nasdaq will post 2.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nasdaq

In related 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 transaction of $454,260.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Jeremy Skule sold 12,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 114,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,928,073.60. This trade represents a 9.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 49,459 shares of company stock valued at $3,811,808. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Nasdaq by 163.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,833,510 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,835,235,000 after buying an additional 24,084,154 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Nasdaq by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,951,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,310,653,000 after buying an additional 1,811,616 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Nasdaq by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,761,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $783,181,000 after buying an additional 932,665 shares during the period. Harris Associates L P boosted its position in Nasdaq by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 8,596,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $627,596,000 after buying an additional 1,096,090 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Nasdaq by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,767,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $287,270,000 after buying an additional 94,122 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.