OP Asset Management Ltd Buys Shares of 47,991 Nasdaq, Inc. $NDAQ

Key Points

• OP Asset Management opened a new position in Nasdaq, buying 47,991 shares valued at about $4.07 million in the first quarter.
• Institutional ownership remains heavy, with hedge funds and other investors holding 72.47% of Nasdaq’s shares; several large holders, including Vanguard and Morgan Stanley, also increased their stakes.
• Nasdaq reported better-than-expected Q1 results, with EPS of $0.96 versus $0.93 expected and revenue of $2.14 billion, while also raising its quarterly dividend to $0.31 per share.

OP Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 47,991 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,074,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NDAQ. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Nasdaq by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,916,887 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $5,819,727,000 after acquiring an additional 268,481 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Nasdaq by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 27,627,767 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,683,485,000 after acquiring an additional 1,258,964 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,878,600 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,930,808,000 after purchasing an additional 259,408 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Nasdaq by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,851,894 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,243,807,000 after purchasing an additional 378,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Nasdaq by 62.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,266,562 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $900,061,000 after purchasing an additional 3,567,843 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NDAQ. Loop Capital set a $113.00 price objective on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Nasdaq in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $110.00 target price on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Nasdaq from $115.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Nasdaq from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, May 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $106.79.

Nasdaq Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Nasdaq stock opened at $78.56 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market cap of $44.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $88.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.65. Nasdaq, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $77.09 and a fifty-two week high of $101.79.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.03. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 17.51% and a net margin of 23.15%.The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. Nasdaq's revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Nasdaq, Inc. will post 3.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nasdaq Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is a positive change from Nasdaq's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Nasdaq's payout ratio is 37.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nasdaq news, major shareholder Ab Investor bought 56,782 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $85.98 per share, for a total transaction of $4,882,116.36. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 58,439,208 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,024,603,103.84. This represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cohen Tal sold 15,518 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.75, for a total transaction of $1,408,258.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 215,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,530,126. This trade represents a 6.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 138,162 shares of company stock worth $11,932,913. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Nasdaq Profile

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.

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