Wealthfront Advisers LLC Acquires 10,314 Shares of Nasdaq, Inc. $NDAQ

Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) by 36.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 38,288 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,314 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Nasdaq were worth $3,387,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NDAQ. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in Nasdaq by 3.8% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 14,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,106,000 after purchasing an additional 538 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP grew its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 34,962 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,652,000 after purchasing an additional 10,110 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 22.0% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 14,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,089,000 after buying an additional 2,584 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 345.5% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 463 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 106.2% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 30,179 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,699,000 after buying an additional 15,545 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on NDAQ shares. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (up from $115.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 target price on shares of Nasdaq and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price (up previously from $114.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $108.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a report on Friday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $103.13.

Nasdaq Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ NDAQ opened at $79.47 on Friday. Nasdaq, Inc. has a 12-month low of $64.84 and a 12-month high of $101.79. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $94.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company has a market cap of $45.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.02.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Nasdaq had a net margin of 21.77% and a return on equity of 16.90%. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Adena T. Friedman sold 300,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.39, for a total transaction of $28,917,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,924,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $185,541,400.17. This represents a 13.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP John Zecca sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.01, for a total value of $450,045.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 125,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,568,656.74. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 604,500 shares of company stock worth $58,440,045 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Nasdaq Company 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.