Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Earns Market Perform Rating from Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued a market perform rating and a $92.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on NDAQ. Argus upgraded Nasdaq to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. TD Cowen raised Nasdaq from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $105.00 to $106.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target (up from $115.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $109.00 price target on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Friday, January 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $105.08.

Nasdaq Price Performance

Nasdaq stock opened at $83.16 on Wednesday. Nasdaq has a 12 month low of $69.44 and a 12 month high of $101.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $85.12 and its 200-day moving average is $89.60. The company has a market capitalization of $47.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.02.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.37 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 21.77% and a return on equity of 16.90%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 3.18 EPS for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Nasdaq news, CEO Adena T. Friedman sold 113,611 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.44, for a total transaction of $9,706,923.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,965,751 shares in the company, valued at $167,953,765.44. This represents a 5.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 506,451 shares of company stock worth $47,142,951 in the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,916,887 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,819,727,000 after acquiring an additional 268,481 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 27,627,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,683,485,000 after acquiring an additional 1,258,964 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,878,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,930,808,000 after acquiring an additional 259,408 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,851,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,243,807,000 after acquiring an additional 378,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 62.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,266,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $900,061,000 after acquiring an additional 3,567,843 shares during the last quarter. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nasdaq News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Nasdaq this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/market commentary views NDAQ as a buying opportunity — Seeking Alpha argues Nasdaq’s organic growth and durable revenue mix make the stock attractive after recent weakness, supporting a constructive longer‑term view. Nasdaq Remains A Buy Opportunity
• Positive Sentiment: Options trade note: a Barchart piece recommends selling out‑of‑the‑money NDAQ put options as a bullish way to set a lower entry — signals some participants see limited downside from current levels. Shorting Nasdaq, Inc. Put Options Makes Sense
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamentals: Nasdaq reported a strong quarter on Jan. 29 (EPS beat and double‑digit revenue growth — revenue rose ~13.4% YoY and EPS beat consensus), which underpins analyst projections for mid‑single‑digit to low‑double‑digit growth and supports the stock’s valuation metrics over time. (Earnings release and consensus figures reflected in recent analyst coverage.)
• Neutral Sentiment: Index announcement: Nasdaq announced Sandisk Corporation (SNDK) will join the Nasdaq‑100 (NDX) on April 20, replacing Atlassian — a routine index reconstitution item that affects index composition but has limited direct impact on NDAQ’s operating results. Sandisk to Join Nasdaq-100
• Neutral Sentiment: Market short‑interest snapshot: Nasdaq published end‑of‑month short interest across Nasdaq‑listed stocks showing a rise in aggregate short interest (March 31 settlement) to ~16.5 billion shares and a days‑to‑cover of 2.73 versus 2.42 previously — a market‑level datapoint that can increase volatility but isn’t specific to NDAQ alone. End-of-Month Short Interest
• Negative Sentiment: Data anomaly/short‑interest noise: a separate short‑interest update to April 10 shows inconsistent/zeroed figures (reported as a jump but with 0 shares and NaN change) — the noisy reporting and headlines about rising short interest can weigh on sentiment even if the underlying data are unclear.

About Nasdaq

Nasdaq, Inc is a global financial technology company that operates one of the world’s leading electronic securities exchanges and provides a broad array of products and services to capital markets participants. Its core activities include operating the Nasdaq Stock Market and other trading venues, developing and supplying market technology and matching engines to exchanges and trading firms, licensing market data and indices, and offering clearing, trade execution and post-trade solutions. The company also provides market surveillance, risk management and regulatory technology used by exchanges and regulators.

Founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) as the first electronic stock market, Nasdaq has evolved into a diversified marketplace and technology provider.