StockNews.com cut shares of National Instruments (NASDAQ:NATI – Get Rating) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

NATI has been the subject of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of National Instruments from $48.00 to $43.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of National Instruments from $42.00 to $35.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of National Instruments from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, September 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, National Instruments presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $44.80.

National Instruments Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NATI opened at $38.98 on Friday. National Instruments has a 52-week low of $29.81 and a 52-week high of $45.98. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $39.00 and a 200 day moving average of $36.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a PE ratio of 49.97 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 2.49.

National Instruments Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 8th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 5th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.87%. National Instruments's dividend payout ratio is currently 143.59%.

Insider Transactions at National Instruments

In other news, CEO Eric Howard Starkloff sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total transaction of $37,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 287,278 shares in the company, valued at $12,065,676. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Eric Howard Starkloff sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total value of $37,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 287,278 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,065,676. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Jason Elliot Green sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.46, for a total transaction of $207,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,081 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,403,078.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,900 shares of company stock worth $438,050. Company insiders own 0.64% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On National Instruments

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in National Instruments in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp bought a new position in shares of National Instruments during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new position in shares of National Instruments during the first quarter valued at approximately $54,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of National Instruments during the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of National Instruments by 5,855.2% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,727 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698 shares in the last quarter. 83.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About National Instruments

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National Instruments Corporation provides a software-centric platform and systems to engineers and scientists worldwide. Its programming environments software includes NI LabVIEW, a graphical software platform to visualize hardware configuration, measurement data, and debugging of application; NI LabWindows/CVI, an ANSI C integrated development environment and engineering toolbox; and NI Measurement Studio, a suite of .NET tools for building engineering applications in Microsoft Visual Studio.

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