Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Increases Dividend to $0.24 Per Share

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This is a boost from Nasdaq’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22.

Nasdaq has increased its dividend by an average of 10.0% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Nasdaq has a payout ratio of 28.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Nasdaq to earn $3.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.4%.

Nasdaq Trading Down 2.0 %

Nasdaq stock opened at $60.29 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.68 billion, a PE ratio of 28.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The business’s fifty day moving average is $59.84 and its 200 day moving average is $56.39. Nasdaq has a one year low of $46.88 and a one year high of $64.25.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.65 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 19.28% and a net margin of 17.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Nasdaq will post 2.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Nasdaq

In related news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total transaction of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the sale, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total transaction of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the sale, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 7,400 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.91, for a total value of $465,534.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,672 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,879,785.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NDAQ has been the topic of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Nasdaq from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price objective on Nasdaq from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com raised Nasdaq from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Nasdaq from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Nasdaq from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.55.

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.