Arizona State Retirement System Increases Holdings in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ)

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 125,178 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,296 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Nasdaq were worth $9,678,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NDAQ. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Nasdaq by 163.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,833,510 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,835,235,000 after buying an additional 24,084,154 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in Nasdaq by 13,532.3% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,000,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $292,040,000 after acquiring an additional 3,970,658 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Nasdaq by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,951,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,310,653,000 after acquiring an additional 1,811,616 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in shares of Nasdaq during the 4th quarter valued at about $110,867,000. Finally, Harris Associates L P grew its position in shares of Nasdaq by 14.6% during the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 8,596,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $627,596,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096,090 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on NDAQ. William Blair assumed coverage on Nasdaq in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Nasdaq from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Nasdaq from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Nasdaq from $96.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nasdaq currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.88.

Nasdaq Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NDAQ opened at $76.17 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The business’s 50 day moving average is $79.91 and its 200 day moving average is $77.14. The stock has a market cap of $43.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.99. Nasdaq, Inc. has a 52-week low of $57.96 and a 52-week high of $84.15.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.02. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 14.82% and a net margin of 15.10%. Sell-side analysts predict that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 3.18 EPS for the current year.

Nasdaq Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Nasdaq’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nasdaq news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 3,500 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.56, for a total value of $285,460.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,532,778.56. The trade was a 5.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Nasdaq 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.