Nasdaq, Inc. $NDAQ Stock: Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Raises Stake

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 79,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,432 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Nasdaq were worth $7,345,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Daiichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,236,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Nasdaq by 572.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,988,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $182,948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,692,770 shares during the period. Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich grew its holdings in Nasdaq by 3.0% in the second quarter. Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich now owns 889,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $70,106,000 after purchasing an additional 25,524 shares during the period. NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd grew its holdings in Nasdaq by 106.5% in the second quarter. NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd now owns 27,130 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,138,000 after purchasing an additional 13,992 shares during the period. Finally, Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Nasdaq in the first quarter valued at $13,891,000. 72.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on NDAQ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $92.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Zacks Research downgraded Nasdaq from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their target price on Nasdaq from $110.00 to $107.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Nasdaq from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $113.53.

Nasdaq Stock Down 2.6%

NDAQ opened at $106.83 on Friday. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $96.45 and its 200 day moving average is $90.84. Nasdaq, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $76.55 and a fifty-two week high of $111.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.19, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.95.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.02. Nasdaq had a net margin of 22.81% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 4.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.88%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jeremy Skule sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $106,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 96,561 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,173,295. This represents a 1.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tal Cohen sold 10,390 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.34, for a total value of $1,073,702.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 205,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,192,553.84. The trade was a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 25,166 shares of company stock valued at $2,577,831 in the last 90 days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Nasdaq Profile

Nasdaq, Inc is a global financial technology and market infrastructure company best known for operating the Nasdaq Stock Market, one of the world’s largest electronic stock exchanges. The company provides listing services for public companies and operates trading venues for equities, options and other financial products. Its exchange business serves companies, investors and market participants in the United States, as well as through Nasdaq’s Nordic and Baltic market operations.

Beyond its exchange activities, Nasdaq provides market data, analytics, indexes and technology used by exchanges, brokers, banks, asset managers and other financial institutions.