Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 14th

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

Nasdaq has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Nasdaq has a dividend payout ratio of 26.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Nasdaq to earn $3.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.9%.

Nasdaq Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ NDAQ opened at $82.28 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $79.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.56. The company has a market capitalization of $47.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.98. Nasdaq has a 1 year low of $54.90 and a 1 year high of $83.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.02. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 14.91% and a net margin of 15.10%. On average, analysts forecast that Nasdaq will post 3.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Pc Nelson Griggs sold 5,742 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were 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 trade represents a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeremy Skule sold 12,075 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.75, for a total transaction of $950,906.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 102,505 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,072,268.75. This trade represents a 10.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,817 shares of company stock valued at $2,330,033 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $79.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $86.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Nasdaq from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $80.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Nasdaq from $92.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.88.

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.