Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Given New $77.00 Price Target at Barclays

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) had its price objective raised by Barclays from $74.00 to $77.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price target points to a potential upside of 15.53% from the stock’s current price.

NDAQ has been the subject of several other reports. StockNews.com cut Nasdaq from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Rosenblatt Securities cut Nasdaq from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $64.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Nasdaq from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley raised Nasdaq from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $80.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Edward Jones started coverage on Nasdaq in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nasdaq currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.67.

Nasdaq Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NDAQ traded down $0.61 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $66.65. 951,632 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,804,234. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.69. Nasdaq has a fifty-two week low of $46.88 and a fifty-two week high of $67.77.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.13 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 15.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Nasdaq will post 2.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nasdaq news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 3,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.89, for a total value of $181,826.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 58,636 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,511,710.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nasdaq

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NDAQ. Thoma Bravo L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,166,454,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Nasdaq in the 4th quarter valued at about $239,347,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,239,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,043,936,000 after purchasing an additional 3,173,981 shares during the period. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 28.4% in the 1st quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,436,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $532,357,000 after purchasing an additional 1,866,219 shares during the period. Finally, Bain Capital Public Equity Management II LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nasdaq in the 4th quarter valued at about $96,241,000. 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.