Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) released its earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.65 by ($0.02), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 15.98% and a return on equity of 17.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.69 EPS.

Nasdaq Stock Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:NDAQ opened at $60.12 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.46. Nasdaq has a 52-week low of $46.88 and a 52-week high of $64.25. The company has a market cap of $34.58 billion, a PE ratio of 31.64, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Nasdaq Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a boost from Nasdaq’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on NDAQ shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Nasdaq from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $59.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Edward Jones assumed coverage on shares of Nasdaq in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on Nasdaq from $76.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on Nasdaq from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nasdaq

In other news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 7,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.91, for a total transaction of $465,534.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,672 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,879,785.52. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Nasdaq news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 7,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.91, for a total transaction of $465,534.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,672 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,879,785.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total transaction of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 58,341,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,809,610. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.75% 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.