NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $231.64.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NICE. Barclays dropped their price target on NICE from $286.00 to $226.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their target price on NICE from $225.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on NICE from $176.00 to $161.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of NICE from $279.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of NICE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 17th.

Institutional Trading of NICE

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new position in shares of NICE during the 4th quarter valued at $313,808,000. FIL Ltd purchased a new position in shares of NICE in the fourth quarter valued at about $70,465,000. New South Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NICE during the fourth quarter worth about $54,980,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of NICE by 95.7% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 606,341 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $102,981,000 after purchasing an additional 296,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd purchased a new position in NICE in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,792,000. 63.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NICE Stock Performance

NICE opened at $150.34 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $158.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $169.02. NICE has a 52-week low of $137.19 and a 52-week high of $256.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.12.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.96 by ($0.71). NICE had a net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $721.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $718.47 million. Research analysts forecast that NICE will post 9.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NICE Company Profile

NICE Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud platforms for AI-driven digital business solutions worldwide. It offers CXone, a cloud native open platform; Enlighten, an AI engine for the customer engagement market; and smart self service enable organizations to address consumers' needs; and journey orchestration solutions that empower organizations to connect and route customers to deal with the customer's request, and connects them using real time AI-based routing.