Insider Selling: Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Insider Sells $1,034,499.60 in Stock

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) insider Pc Nelson Griggs sold 11,010 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.96, for a total value of $1,034,499.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 216,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,296,393.56. This represents a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Pc Nelson Griggs also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, July 24th, Pc Nelson Griggs sold 6,777 shares of Nasdaq stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.53, for a total transaction of $627,075.81.

Nasdaq Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of Nasdaq stock traded up $2.02 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $95.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,138,435 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,098,726. The company has a market capitalization of $53.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $87.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.40. Nasdaq, Inc. has a one year low of $76.55 and a one year high of $101.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. Nasdaq had a net margin of 22.60% and a return on equity of 18.38%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Nasdaq Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nasdaq

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Nasdaq in the fourth quarter valued at $530,100,000. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 62.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,266,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $900,061,000 after acquiring an additional 3,567,843 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC increased its holdings in Nasdaq by 82.0% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 6,073,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $589,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,736,322 shares during the last quarter. Harris Associates L P increased its holdings in Nasdaq by 46.0% in the 4th quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 8,621,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $837,425,000 after acquiring an additional 2,716,280 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in Nasdaq by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,619,192 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,735,318,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404,348 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $92.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Nasdaq in a report on Friday. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $111.00 price objective (up from $108.00) on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Friday. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $110.00 target price on Nasdaq in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Nasdaq in a report on Monday, July 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nasdaq currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $109.73.

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.