Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.31

Key Points

• Nasdaq declared a quarterly dividend of $0.31 per share (payable June 26) — a 14.8% increase from $0.27, with stockholders of record on June 12 and a yield of about 1.4%.
• For the quarter Nasdaq reported earnings of $0.96 per share versus a $0.93 consensus and revenue of $2.14 billion (up 13.7% year-over-year), beating estimates.
• The dividend is well covered (current payout ratio ~30.3%); analysts expect roughly $4.30 in EPS next year, implying an expected payout ratio near 25% and continued ability to sustain the dividend.

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, June 26th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. This is a 14.8% increase from Nasdaq's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27.

Nasdaq has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Nasdaq has a payout ratio of 30.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Nasdaq to earn $4.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.1%.

Nasdaq Trading Up 0.8%

Nasdaq stock traded up $0.67 during trading on Thursday, reaching $87.04. The company had a trading volume of 5,243,423 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,156,125. Nasdaq has a 12-month low of $71.98 and a 12-month high of $101.79. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $85.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.03. Nasdaq had a net margin of 21.77% and a return on equity of 16.90%. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.79 earnings per share. Nasdaq's revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Nasdaq will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, CEO Adena T. Friedman sold 113,611 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.44, for a total transaction of $9,706,923.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,965,751 shares in the company, valued at $167,953,765.44. The trade was a 5.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 506,451 shares of company stock worth $47,142,951 in the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nasdaq

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Nasdaq by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,916,887 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $5,819,727,000 after buying an additional 268,481 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Nasdaq by 4.8% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 1,258,964 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Nasdaq by 1.3% during 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 buying an additional 259,408 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Nasdaq by 3.0% during 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 buying an additional 378,577 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Nasdaq by 62.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,266,562 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $900,061,000 after buying an additional 3,567,843 shares during the period. 72.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.