Man Group plc Cuts Stock Holdings in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ)

Man Group plc lowered its stake in shares of Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) by 44.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 249,571 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 196,321 shares during the period. Man Group plc’s holdings in Nasdaq were worth $19,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Nasdaq by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,576,413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,064,682,000 after purchasing an additional 376,893 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Nasdaq by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,018,705 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $849,783,000 after purchasing an additional 257,465 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Nasdaq by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 10,379,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $802,401,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225,672 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Nasdaq by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,954,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $537,640,000 after purchasing an additional 335,565 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Nasdaq by 37.9% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,005,047 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $464,676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650,201 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on NDAQ. UBS Group reaffirmed a “cautious” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $89.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Nasdaq from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $74.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nasdaq presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.50.

Nasdaq Price Performance

NDAQ opened at $81.90 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $75.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.92. The firm has a market cap of $47.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.66, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.00. Nasdaq, Inc. has a twelve month low of $58.28 and a twelve month high of $84.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 14.82%. The business’s revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 3.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. This is a positive change from Nasdaq’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.09%.

Insider Activity at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 657 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.81, for a total transaction of $47,179.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,450,783.80. This trade represents a 1.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Sarah Youngwood sold 14,959 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.68, for a total transaction of $1,102,179.12. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 59,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,398,253.92. This represents a 20.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.