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

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th.

Nasdaq has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Nasdaq has a payout ratio of 31.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Nasdaq to earn $3.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.4%.

Nasdaq Stock Up 7.2 %

Shares of NDAQ opened at $67.26 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $38.69 billion, a PE ratio of 35.40, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $60.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Nasdaq has a 12 month low of $46.88 and a 12 month high of $67.77.

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Nasdaq had a return on equity of 17.00% and a net margin of 15.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Nasdaq will post 2.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Nasdaq

In other Nasdaq news, EVP Bryan Everard Smith sold 3,036 shares of Nasdaq stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.89, for a total transaction of $181,826.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,511,710.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Nasdaq from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded Nasdaq from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $64.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Nasdaq from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Nasdaq from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Edward Jones assumed coverage on shares of Nasdaq in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Nasdaq presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.42.

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.