Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Lifted to “Buy” at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $73.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, January 12th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Nasdaq from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a buy rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $63.70.

Nasdaq Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NDAQ stock opened at $63.10 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $36.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.91, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.92. Nasdaq has a 52-week low of $46.88 and a 52-week high of $63.52. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.74.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 17.48% and a return on equity of 19.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Nasdaq will post 2.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 41.71%.

Insider Transactions at Nasdaq

In other news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total value of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 58,341,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,383,809,610. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nasdaq

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 1,717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 1,120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $200,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Brinker Capital Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Brinker Capital Investments LLC now owns 29,446 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,247,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,142 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,273,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 1,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. 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.