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

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) issued its earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.69 EPS.

Nasdaq Price Performance

Shares of NDAQ opened at $60.12 on Friday. Nasdaq has a one year low of $46.88 and a one year high of $64.25. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $59.93 and its 200-day moving average is $56.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.93.

Nasdaq Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This is a positive change from Nasdaq’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Nasdaq’s payout ratio is 46.32%.

Insider Activity at Nasdaq

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NDAQ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Nasdaq from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $76.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Nasdaq from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.92.

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.