Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Upgraded at TD Cowen

TD Cowen upgraded shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. TD Cowen currently has $106.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $105.00.

NDAQ has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Argus upgraded shares of Nasdaq to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price objective on Nasdaq and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $108.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Friday, January 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.80.

Nasdaq Price Performance

NDAQ opened at $87.58 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $92.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $91.23. Nasdaq has a 12-month low of $64.84 and a 12-month high of $101.79. The firm has a market cap of $49.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.37 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 16.90% and a net margin of 21.77%.Nasdaq’s revenue was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is 34.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP John Zecca sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.01, for a total value of $450,045.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 125,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,568,656.74. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Adena T. Friedman sold 300,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.91, for a total value of $29,073,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,924,903 shares in the company, valued at $186,542,349.73. This trade represents a 13.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 604,500 shares of company stock worth $58,440,045. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nasdaq

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 33.5% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 27,274,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,438,897,000 after buying an additional 6,840,735 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Nasdaq during the 4th quarter worth approximately $530,100,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,648,406 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,275,902,000 after purchasing an additional 3,848,406 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 62.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,266,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $900,061,000 after purchasing an additional 3,567,843 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC increased its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 82.0% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 6,073,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $589,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,736,322 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Nasdaq

Nasdaq, Inc is a global financial technology company that operates one of the world’s leading electronic securities exchanges and provides a broad array of products and services to capital markets participants. Its core activities include operating the Nasdaq Stock Market and other trading venues, developing and supplying market technology and matching engines to exchanges and trading firms, licensing market data and indices, and offering clearing, trade execution and post-trade solutions. The company also provides market surveillance, risk management and regulatory technology used by exchanges and regulators.

Founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) as the first electronic stock market, Nasdaq has evolved into a diversified marketplace and technology provider.