Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Sell

StockNews.com lowered shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on NDAQ. William Blair started coverage on Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James raised shares of Nasdaq from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $92.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.87.

Nasdaq Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ NDAQ opened at $81.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.59, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $76.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.48. Nasdaq has a 52-week low of $53.62 and a 52-week high of $83.77.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 13.67%. Nasdaq’s quarterly revenue was up 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 2.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, insider Pc Nelson Griggs sold 6,000 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.71, for a total value of $454,260.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 215,563 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,320,274.73. The trade was a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Bradley J. Peterson sold 13,642 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.32, for a total transaction of $1,027,515.44. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 142,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,757,955.60. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 49,459 shares of company stock valued at $3,811,808 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in Nasdaq by 8.0% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 90,640 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,618,000 after buying an additional 6,704 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Nasdaq by 38.6% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 60,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,420,000 after buying an additional 16,868 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in Nasdaq during the third quarter worth about $1,266,000. Sfmg LLC purchased a new stake in Nasdaq during the third quarter worth about $207,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the third quarter valued at about $651,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

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.