Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Lowered to Neutral at Rosenblatt Securities

Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report report published on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $64.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $76.00.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on NDAQ. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Nasdaq from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $73.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Nasdaq from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Nasdaq from $75.00 to $74.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley raised Nasdaq from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and upped their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Edward Jones began coverage on Nasdaq in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set a buy rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $65.92.

Nasdaq Price Performance

NASDAQ NDAQ opened at $59.91 on Wednesday. Nasdaq has a 1 year low of $46.88 and a 1 year high of $64.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $60.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.07. The company has a market cap of $34.46 billion, a PE ratio of 31.53, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.65 by ($0.02). Nasdaq had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 15.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Nasdaq will post 2.69 EPS for the current year.

Nasdaq Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This is a boost from Nasdaq’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is currently 50.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nasdaq

In other news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 3,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.89, for a total transaction of $181,826.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,636 shares in the company, valued at $3,511,710.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 3,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.89, for a total transaction of $181,826.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 58,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,511,710.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total value of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 58,341,545 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,809,610. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,010,436 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,647,360 in the last 90 days. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Thoma Bravo L.P. bought a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the 4th quarter worth about $4,166,454,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Nasdaq by 214.0% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,281,617 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $305,224,000 after purchasing an additional 4,280,846 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $239,347,000. Bain Capital Public Equity Management II LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nasdaq in the 4th quarter worth approximately $96,241,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,065,891 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,620,131,000 after buying an additional 745,965 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.