Keynote Financial Services LLC Invests $278,000 in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ)

Keynote Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Nasdaq by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 6,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 1,894 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in Nasdaq by 52.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 30,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,907,000 after purchasing an additional 10,427 shares during the period. Farallon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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. PGGM Investments boosted its holdings in Nasdaq by 17.4% in the 1st quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 10,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in Nasdaq by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 28,732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,813,000 after purchasing an additional 4,581 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NDAQ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Nasdaq from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Nasdaq from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Nasdaq from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nasdaq news, major shareholder Seller Lp Argus sold 42,804,207 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.58, for a total transaction of $2,764,295,688.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,804,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,764,295,688.06. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Nasdaq Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ NDAQ traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $66.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,770,290 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,965,449. The stock has a market cap of $38.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Nasdaq, Inc. has a one year low of $46.88 and a one year high of $70.01. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.18.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.05. Nasdaq had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 15.45%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 25.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 2.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 50.53%.

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.