Morgan Stanley Cuts NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) Price Target to $202.00

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) had its price target cut by Morgan Stanley from $235.00 to $202.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. DA Davidson cut their price objective on NICE from $200.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of NICE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 17th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of NICE from $279.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of NICE from $286.00 to $226.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $200.00 price target (down previously from $215.00) on shares of NICE in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.71.

NICE Price Performance

NASDAQ:NICE opened at $149.75 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $153.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $167.40. NICE has a 1-year low of $137.19 and a 1-year high of $231.67. The firm has a market cap of $9.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.05.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.96 by ($0.71). NICE had a net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $721.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $718.47 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NICE will post 9.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NICE

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NICE during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $313,808,000. FIL Ltd acquired a new position in shares of NICE in the 4th quarter valued at $70,465,000. New South Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NICE during the 4th quarter worth $54,980,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of NICE by 95.7% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 606,341 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $102,981,000 after purchasing an additional 296,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in NICE in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,792,000. 63.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About NICE

NICE Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud platforms for AI-driven digital business solutions worldwide. It offers CXone, a cloud native open platform; Enlighten, an AI engine for the customer engagement market; and smart self service enable organizations to address consumers' needs; and journey orchestration solutions that empower organizations to connect and route customers to deal with the customer's request, and connects them using real time AI-based routing.