Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Nasdaq from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $73.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $63.70.

Nasdaq Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NDAQ opened at $63.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.33 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.92. Nasdaq has a 1 year low of $46.88 and a 1 year high of $63.52. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $58.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 17.48% and a return on equity of 19.28%. Nasdaq’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 2.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is 41.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total transaction of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 58,341,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,809,610. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 51.3% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 6,868 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $399,000 after buying an additional 2,328 shares in the last quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $246,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $287,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,065,891 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,620,131,000 after purchasing an additional 745,965 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SageView Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $259,000. 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.