Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) CEO Adena Friedman Sells 92,840 Shares

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) CEO Adena Friedman sold 92,840 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.08, for a total transaction of $8,363,027.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,079,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $187,305,415.84. The trade was a 4.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Nasdaq Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of Nasdaq stock traded down $0.45 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $87.60. 3,833,422 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,897,976. The stock has a market cap of $49.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Nasdaq, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $64.84 and a fifty-two week high of $101.79. The company has a 50 day moving average of $91.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $90.94.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last announced its earnings results 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. Nasdaq had a net margin of 21.77% and a return on equity of 16.90%. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. Nasdaq’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 3.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 34.95%.

Institutional Trading of Nasdaq

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Nasdaq by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,916,887 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,819,727,000 after purchasing an additional 268,481 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Nasdaq by 4.8% during 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 buying an additional 1,258,964 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Nasdaq by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,878,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,930,808,000 after buying an additional 259,408 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Nasdaq by 3.0% in the fourth 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 period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Nasdaq by 62.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,266,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $900,061,000 after purchasing an additional 3,567,843 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NDAQ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Argus raised shares of Nasdaq to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $108.00 target price on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $115.00 price target (up from $114.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Friday, January 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nasdaq presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $103.80.

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.