The Goldman Sachs Group Upgrades Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) to “Buy”

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) was upgraded by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has a $73.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 15.87% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on NDAQ. Piper Sandler boosted 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. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Nasdaq from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.70.

Nasdaq Price Performance

NDAQ stock opened at $63.00 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $58.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.68. Nasdaq has a 12-month low of $46.88 and a 12-month high of $63.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.86, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released 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. Nasdaq had a net margin of 17.48% and a return on equity of 19.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Nasdaq will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Nasdaq news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 58,341,545 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,809,610. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thoma Bravo L.P. bought a new position in shares of Nasdaq in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,166,454,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,065,891 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,620,131,000 after buying an additional 745,965 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 12.2% in the second 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. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 2.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,431,683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $719,419,000 after buying an additional 321,354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 1.6% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,735,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $422,030,000 after buying an additional 125,136 shares in the last quarter. 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.