William Blair Investment Management LLC Sells 170,799 Shares of NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE)

William Blair Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) by 15.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 958,733 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 170,799 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned about 1.52% of NICE worth $162,823,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NICE by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 11,164 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,896,000 after acquiring an additional 769 shares during the last quarter. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in NICE in the fourth quarter worth $4,959,000. Aurora Investment Counsel raised its holdings in NICE by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 11,960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,031,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in NICE by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 10,098 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,715,000 after purchasing an additional 1,270 shares during the period. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp raised its holdings in NICE by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 18,917 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,213,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the period. 63.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NICE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on shares of NICE from $225.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Barclays cut their target price on shares of NICE from $286.00 to $226.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their target price on shares of NICE from $176.00 to $161.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of NICE from $260.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $200.00 price objective (down from $215.00) on shares of NICE in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NICE presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $231.64.

NICE Price Performance

Shares of NICE opened at $144.61 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $161.13 and a 200-day moving average of $170.12. NICE Ltd. has a one year low of $137.19 and a one year high of $270.73. The company has a market cap of $9.09 billion, a PE ratio of 21.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.12.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $721.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $718.47 million. Analysts expect that NICE Ltd. will post 9.85 earnings per share for the current year.

NICE 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.