Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on NDAQ. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup raised their price objective on Nasdaq from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Nasdaq from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Nasdaq from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.70.

Nasdaq Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NDAQ stock traded up $0.77 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $63.00. The company had a trading volume of 3,036,657 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,190,631. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.68. The company has a market capitalization of $36.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. Nasdaq has a twelve month low of $46.88 and a twelve month high of $63.08.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 17.48% and a return on equity of 19.28%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total value of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 58,341,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,383,809,610. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Thoma Bravo L.P. acquired a new position in Nasdaq during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,166,454,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 214.0% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,281,617 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $305,224,000 after buying an additional 4,280,846 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Nasdaq in the 4th quarter worth approximately $239,347,000. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Nasdaq by 12.2% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 30,147,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,502,849,000 after buying an additional 3,276,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bain Capital Public Equity Management II LLC bought a new stake in Nasdaq during the 4th quarter valued at $96,241,000. Institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

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.