Boston Partners Increases Position in NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE)

Boston Partners boosted its position in NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,670,327 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 151,528 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners owned approximately 2.66% of NICE worth $283,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans bought a new stake in NICE in the fourth quarter valued at about $224,000. Haven Capital Group Inc. bought a new stake in NICE in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,577,000. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 769 shares during the last quarter. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in NICE in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,959,000. Finally, Aurora Investment Counsel boosted its stake in NICE by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 11,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,031,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. 63.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Barclays decreased their target price on NICE from $286.00 to $226.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on NICE from $260.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (down from $215.00) on shares of NICE in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup decreased their target price on NICE from $279.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on NICE from $225.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $231.64.

NICE Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NICE opened at $151.02 on Wednesday. NICE Ltd. has a 12 month low of $137.19 and a 12 month high of $270.73. The stock has a market cap of $9.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.34, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $160.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $169.79.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.96 by ($0.71). NICE had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 16.18%. The firm had revenue of $721.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $718.47 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NICE Ltd. will post 9.85 EPS 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.