Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Makes New $313.81 Million Investment in NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new stake in NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 1,847,670 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $313,808,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allianz SE purchased a new position in NICE in the 4th quarter valued at $290,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NICE during the 4th quarter valued at about $6,794,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in NICE by 706.1% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,708 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $630,000 after acquiring an additional 3,248 shares during the last quarter. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. raised its holdings in NICE by 41.4% in the 4th quarter. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. now owns 4,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $695,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NICE by 86.9% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 27,136 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,609,000 after purchasing an additional 12,616 shares during the last quarter. 63.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

NICE Stock Down 2.1 %

NASDAQ:NICE opened at $155.48 on Friday. NICE Ltd. has a 52 week low of $137.19 and a 52 week high of $260.62. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $159.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $169.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.12.

NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) last announced its 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). The firm had revenue of $721.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $718.47 million. NICE had a net margin of 16.18% and a return on equity of 16.17%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NICE Ltd. will post 9.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.