Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.02, Zacks reports. Nasdaq had a net margin of 13.67% and a return on equity of 14.56%.

Nasdaq Stock Up 0.7 %

NDAQ opened at $81.73 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Nasdaq has a 12 month low of $54.90 and a 12 month high of $83.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $74.51.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 57.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nasdaq news, EVP Jeremy Skule sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.92, for a total transaction of $935,040.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 114,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,928,073.60. This represents a 9.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Pc Nelson Griggs sold 5,742 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.34, for a total transaction of $444,086.28. Following the sale, the insider now owns 205,821 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,918,196.14. The trade was a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,817 shares of company stock valued at $2,330,033 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on NDAQ shares. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Nasdaq from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Nasdaq from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Nasdaq from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $92.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.67.

About Nasdaq

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.