The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in National Instruments Corporation (NASDAQ:NATI). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 0.20% to 13.03 million shares with purchase of 26184.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 9.98% valued currently at $658.34 million. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 0.68 million to 11.14 million shares. And Janus Henderson Investors US LLC has lifted its position by 0.59% or 51742.0 shares – to 8.86 million shares.
With over 2.06 million National Instruments Corporation (NATI) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $48.82 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $100.76 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 20.48% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -1.69%. Currently, there are 130.83M common shares owned by the public and among those 129.69M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 7 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for NATI have a consensus price objective of $54.83. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $70.00 and a low of $44.00. The average price target is 10.96% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -10.95% over that period. But an upside of 30.26% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $54.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 42 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 20 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 165,160 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 22 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 126,205 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in National Instruments Corporation are Janus Henderson Enterprise Fund, iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. Janus Henderson Enterprise Fund owns 5.78 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $291.98 million. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF bought 9240.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 4.08 million shares valued at over $205.85 million and representing 3.12% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 4951.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 4.0 million shares at a value of $202.07 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 3.06% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of National Instruments Corporation (NASDAQ: NATI) opened at $49.08, down -$0.58 from a prior closing price of $49.66. However, the script later moved the day high at 49.45, down -1.69%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -3.95% and 23.07% over the past three months. NATI shares are trading 32.30% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 25.28% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $29.81 and touched a high of $55.04 over the same period. NATI has an average intraday trading volume of 1.86 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -4.80%, -0.48%, and 20.68% respectively.
Institutional ownership of National Instruments Corporation (NASDAQ: NATI) shares accounts for 93.70% of the company’s 130.83M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 55.50%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 7.55% and 36.88% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $6.50B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.20. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 46.23, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.06. The company has a PEG of 7.98 and a Quick Ratio of 1.30 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.47. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.56% over the week and 1.35% over the month.
Analysts forecast that National Instruments Corporation (NATI) will achieve an EPS of $0.54 for the current quarter, $0.55 for the next quarter and $2.9 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.52 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.55. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.41 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 57.60%, and 16.85% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 5.79% over the next five years, compared to 2.50% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 7 brokerage firm advisors rate National Instruments Corporation (NATI) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.30. Specifically, 3 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 3 of the 7 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the NATI, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Robert W. Baird stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on February 01, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $50-$55. Jefferies coverage for the National Instruments Corporation (NATI) stock in a research note released on November 22, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $50. UBS was of a view on October 20, 2022 that the stock is Neutral, while Susquehanna gave the stock Positive rating on January 28, 2022, issuing a price target of $48- $50. JP Morgan on their part issued Neutral rating on December 13, 2021.
