How to buy NIC stock | 21.09

NIC Inc is a software—application business based in the US. NIC shares (EGOV) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. NIC employs 1,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$362.2 million.

How to buy shares in NIC

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for NIC. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: EGOV. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until NIC reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$21.09, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of NIC, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of NIC. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted NIC's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, NIC's share price has had significant positive movement.

Its last market close was USD$21.09, which is 3.60% up on its pre-crash value of USD$20.33 and 36.15% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$15.49.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of NIC shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$1,014.00 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$1,054.50.

NIC share price

Use our graph to track the performance of EGOV stocks over time.

NIC shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-21.

Latest market close	USD$21.09
52-week range	USD$15.49 - USD$25.94
50-day moving average	USD$20.6789
200-day moving average	USD$22.4706
Wall St. target price	USD$27.67
PE ratio	28.6267
Dividend yield	USD$0.36 (1.68%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$0.74

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Is it a good time to buy NIC stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of NIC Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

NIC price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $21.09 from 2020-10-19

1 week (2020-10-22)	-0.33%
1 month (2020-09-29)	6.41%
3 months (2020-07-29)	-5.51%
6 months (2020-04-29)	-15.30%

1 year (2019-10-29)	1.05%
2 years (2018-10-29)	55.19%
3 years (2017-10-27)	24.06%
5 years (2015-10-29)	10.30%

Is NIC under- or over-valued?

Valuing NIC stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of NIC's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

NIC's P/E ratio

NIC's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 29x. In other words, NIC shares trade at around 29x recent earnings.

That's comparable to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29).

NIC's PEG ratio

NIC's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.36. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into NIC's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

NIC's EBITDA

NIC's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$69.3 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a NIC's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

NIC financials

Revenue TTM	USD$362.2 million
Operating margin TTM	17.51%
Gross profit TTM	USD$137.1 million
Return on assets TTM	10.49%
Return on equity TTM	20.55%
Profit margin	13.84%
Book value	$3.856
Market capitalisation	USD$1.4 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting NIC shares

There are currently 1.0 million NIC shares held short by investors – that's known as NIC's "short interest". This figure is 3.4% down from 1.1 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting NIC shares can be evaluated.

NIC's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

NIC's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of NIC shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of NIC shares traded daily (recently around 354208.90410959). NIC's SIR currently stands at 2.92. In other words for every 100,000 NIC shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2920 shares are currently held short.

However NIC's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of NIC shares, or, against the total number of tradable NIC shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case NIC's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 NIC shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0215% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable NIC shares, roughly 22 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against NIC.

Find out more about how you can short NIC stock.

NIC share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 47.3% of net profits

Recently NIC has paid out, on average, around 47.3% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.68% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), NIC shareholders could enjoy a 1.68% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In NIC's case, that would currently equate to about $0.36 per share.

While NIC's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that NIC may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

NIC's most recent dividend payout was on 22 September 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 4 September 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

NIC share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, NIC's shares have ranged in value from as little as $15.49 up to $25.94. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while NIC's is 0.3309. This would suggest that NIC's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

NIC overview

NIC Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides digital government services that enable governments to use technology to provide various services to businesses and citizens in the United States. Its portals consist websites and applications that enable businesses and citizens to access government information through online channels, such as applying for a permit, retrieving government records, or filing a government-mandated form or report. The company's portal service offerings include motor vehicle driver history record retrieval; vehicle title, lien, and registration; motor vehicle inspections; temporary vehicle tags; driver's license renewal; hunting and fishing licenses; health professional license services; professional license renewal; business registrations and renewals; secretary of state business searches; Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) searches and filings; limited criminal history searches; court services; vital records; income and property tax payments; and payment processing products and services. Its software & services business provides software development, payment processing, and other digital government services to state and local governments, as well as federal agencies. In addition, the company develops and manages the pre-employment screening program for motor carriers using transaction-based business model. Further, it offers application development and portal management services to governments. NIC Inc. was founded in 1991 and is based in Olathe, Kansas.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of NIC is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 2.778% of NIC shares are held by insiders and 89.563% by institutions.

• How many people work for NIC?

  Latest data suggests 1,000 work at NIC.

• When does the fiscal year end for NIC?

  NIC's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is NIC based?

  NIC's address is: 25501 West Valley Parkway, Olathe, KS, United States, 66061

• What is NIC's ISIN number?

  NIC's international securities identification number is: US62914B1008

• What is NIC's CUSIP number?

  NIC's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 62914B100