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

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by ($0.02), Briefing.com reports. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 19.28% and a net margin of 17.48%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis.

Nasdaq Stock Performance

Shares of NDAQ traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $60.12. The company had a trading volume of 4,792,085 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,181,565. The firm has a market cap of $34.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.48, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a fifty day moving average of $59.84 and a 200-day moving average of $56.39. Nasdaq has a 12 month low of $46.88 and a 12 month high of $64.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Nasdaq Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.24 dividend. 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. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.71%.

Insider Activity at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq 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 transaction of $465,534.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,672 shares in the company, valued at $3,879,785.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 58,341,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,383,809,610. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 owns 61,672 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,879,785.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Edward Jones assumed coverage on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Nasdaq from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.92.

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.