Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates Outperform Rating for Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ)

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $88.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 9.89% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on NDAQ. Raymond James raised shares of Nasdaq from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $82.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Nasdaq from $84.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Nasdaq from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Nasdaq from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Nasdaq currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.87.

Nasdaq Stock Down 0.1 %

NDAQ stock opened at $80.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $46.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.82. Nasdaq has a 1-year low of $53.62 and a 1-year high of $81.08.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 13.67% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 2.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nasdaq news, EVP Bradley J. Peterson sold 13,642 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.32, for a total value 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 $10,757,955.60. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Pc Nelson Griggs sold 5,742 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.34, for a total value of $444,086.28. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 205,821 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,918,196.14. This represents a 2.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 49,459 shares of company stock valued at $3,811,808. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nasdaq

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NDAQ. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd raised its position in Nasdaq by 94.8% in the 2nd quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Nasdaq during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Claro Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Nasdaq in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Focused Wealth Management Inc acquired a new position in Nasdaq in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.