Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Upgraded by Raymond James to Outperform

Raymond James upgraded shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports. Raymond James currently has $82.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

NDAQ has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $77.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.31.

Nasdaq Price Performance

Shares of NDAQ opened at $73.76 on Monday. Nasdaq has a 1-year low of $47.56 and a 1-year high of $74.88. The stock has a market cap of $42.43 billion, a PE ratio of 38.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.05. Nasdaq had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 15.45%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.13 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Nasdaq will post 2.75 EPS for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 50.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, major shareholder Seller Lp Argus sold 42,804,207 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.58, for a total value of $2,764,295,688.06. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,804,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,764,295,688.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nasdaq

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Seven Grand Managers LLC boosted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 1,900.0% in the 3rd quarter. Seven Grand Managers LLC now owns 500,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,505,000 after buying an additional 475,000 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Financial boosted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 13,842 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,011,000 after buying an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 46,053 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,362,000 after buying an additional 5,415 shares in the last quarter. Fruth Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the 3rd quarter worth about $219,000. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 54,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,010,000 after buying an additional 3,475 shares in the last quarter. 72.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.