GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases 7,627 Shares of Nasdaq, Inc. $NDAQ

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 175,489 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,627 shares during the quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Nasdaq were worth $17,045,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NDAQ. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Nasdaq during the third quarter valued at $27,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Nasdaq by 100.0% during the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 318 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC bought a new position in Nasdaq during the third quarter valued at $29,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in Nasdaq during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new position in Nasdaq during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. 72.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nasdaq Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:NDAQ opened at $88.61 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $50.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $85.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.61. Nasdaq, Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.88 and a 1 year high of $101.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.37 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 16.90% and a net margin of 21.77%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 3.18 EPS for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.95%.

Insider Activity

In other Nasdaq news, CEO Adena T. Friedman sold 113,611 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.44, for a total transaction of $9,706,923.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,965,751 shares in the company, valued at $167,953,765.44. This represents a 5.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 506,451 shares of company stock worth $47,142,951 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Nasdaq from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $109.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on Nasdaq from $115.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Argus upgraded Nasdaq to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, January 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.25.

About Nasdaq

Nasdaq, Inc is a global financial technology company that operates one of the world’s leading electronic securities exchanges and provides a broad array of products and services to capital markets participants. Its core activities include operating the Nasdaq Stock Market and other trading venues, developing and supplying market technology and matching engines to exchanges and trading firms, licensing market data and indices, and offering clearing, trade execution and post-trade solutions. The company also provides market surveillance, risk management and regulatory technology used by exchanges and regulators.

Founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) as the first electronic stock market, Nasdaq has evolved into a diversified marketplace and technology provider.