Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Upgraded at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) from an underperform rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $90.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $53.00.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Argus increased their price objective on Nasdaq from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $74.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Nasdaq from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $64.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $71.69.

Nasdaq Stock Down 2.0 %

NDAQ opened at $71.95 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.40. Nasdaq has a 1-year low of $46.88 and a 1-year high of $74.17. The stock has a market cap of $41.39 billion, a PE ratio of 37.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 15.45% and a net margin of 14.43%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 50.53%.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Seller Lp Argus sold 42,804,207 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.58, for a total value of $2,764,295,688.06. Following the sale, the insider now owns 42,804,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,764,295,688.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nasdaq

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Thoma Bravo L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Nasdaq in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,166,454,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Nasdaq in the 4th quarter worth approximately $239,347,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Nasdaq by 28.4% during the first quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,436,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $532,357,000 after buying an additional 1,866,219 shares during the period. Finally, Bain Capital Public Equity Management II LLC bought a new position in Nasdaq during the fourth quarter worth $96,241,000. Institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

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.