Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for NICE (NASDAQ:NICE)

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $200.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target indicates a potential upside of 29.84% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on NICE. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $200.00 price target (down previously from $215.00) on shares of NICE in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays cut their price objective on NICE from $286.00 to $226.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on NICE from $176.00 to $161.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com cut NICE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on NICE from $225.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NICE currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $231.64.

NICE Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NICE traded up $3.02 on Wednesday, reaching $154.04. 41,384 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 560,385. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $160.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $169.79. NICE has a 52-week low of $137.19 and a 52-week high of $270.73. The stock has a market cap of $9.68 billion, a PE ratio of 22.79, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.12.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NICE. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new position in shares of NICE in the 4th quarter valued at about $313,808,000. FIL Ltd purchased a new stake in NICE in the 4th quarter worth about $70,465,000. New South Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in NICE in the 4th quarter worth about $54,980,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in NICE by 95.7% in the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, Perpetual Ltd purchased a new stake in NICE in the 4th quarter worth about $31,792,000. Institutional investors own 63.34% of the company’s stock.

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.