Royal Bank of Canada Initiates Coverage on Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ)

Research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada began coverage on shares of Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) in a research report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $88.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 21.21% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on NDAQ. Bank of America upgraded Nasdaq from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $53.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Nasdaq from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Nasdaq from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Barclays raised their price target on Nasdaq from $74.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Nasdaq from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nasdaq currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.87.

Nasdaq Price Performance

NASDAQ NDAQ opened at $72.60 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $70.10 and a 200 day moving average of $64.07. The company has a market capitalization of $41.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.21, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.95. Nasdaq has a one year low of $46.88 and a one year high of $74.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.05. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 15.45% and a net margin of 14.43%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Nasdaq will post 2.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, major shareholder Seller Lp Argus sold 42,804,207 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.58, for a total transaction of $2,764,295,688.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 42,804,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,764,295,688.06. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NDAQ. Y.D. More Investments Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 94.8% during the second quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Nasdaq in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. boosted its stake in Nasdaq by 89.3% in the first quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Crewe Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Nasdaq by 164.4% in the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 505 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 314 shares during the period. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Nasdaq in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.47% 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.