Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.24

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This is a boost from Nasdaq’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22.

Nasdaq has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Nasdaq has a payout ratio of 28.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Nasdaq to earn $3.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.4%.

Nasdaq Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of Nasdaq stock opened at $60.29 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $59.84 and a 200 day moving average of $56.39. Nasdaq has a fifty-two week low of $46.88 and a fifty-two week high of $64.25. The company has a market capitalization of $34.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.65 by ($0.02). Nasdaq had a net margin of 17.48% and a return on equity of 19.28%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nasdaq will post 2.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total value of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 58,341,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,809,610. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Nasdaq news, major shareholder Dubai Ltd Borse sold 31,000,000 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total value of $1,798,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 58,341,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,383,809,610. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 7,400 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.91, for a total transaction of $465,534.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,672 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,879,785.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on NDAQ. StockNews.com raised shares of Nasdaq from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $76.00 price objective on the stock. Edward Jones initiated coverage on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Nasdaq from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nasdaq currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.55.

About Nasdaq

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.