Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Given New $108.00 Price Target at Barclays

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) had its price target lowered by Barclays from $114.00 to $108.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital set a $113.00 target price on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Nasdaq from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Nasdaq from $104.00 to $98.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $110.00 target price on Nasdaq in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $107.23.

Nasdaq Stock Up 3.7%

Shares of NDAQ opened at $87.52 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.99. Nasdaq has a 1 year low of $76.55 and a 1 year high of $101.79. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.02.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.03. Nasdaq had a net margin of 23.15% and a return on equity of 17.51%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. Nasdaq’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 3.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. This is an increase from Nasdaq’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is currently 37.35%.

Insider Activity at Nasdaq

In other news, insider Cohen Tal sold 15,518 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.75, for a total transaction of $1,408,258.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 215,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,530,126. The trade was a 6.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Michelle Lynn Daly sold 1,323 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.82, for a total value of $117,508.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 10,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $896,104.98. This trade represents a 11.59% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 24,551 shares of company stock valued at $2,225,990 over the last 90 days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NDAQ. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Nasdaq by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,916,887 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,819,727,000 after buying an additional 268,481 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Nasdaq by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 27,627,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,683,485,000 after buying an additional 1,258,964 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Nasdaq by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,878,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,930,808,000 after buying an additional 259,408 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Nasdaq by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,851,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,243,807,000 after acquiring an additional 378,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 62.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,266,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $900,061,000 after acquiring an additional 3,567,843 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nasdaq Company Profile

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.