Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ) on Q1 2023 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Operator: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Nasdaq First Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Ato Garrett, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please, go ahead. Ato Garrett: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Nasdaq's first quarter 2023 financial results. On the line are Adena Friedman, our Chair and Chief Executive Officer; Ann Dennison, our Chief Financial Officer; John Zecca, our Chief Legal Risk and Regulatory Officer; and other members of the management team. After prepared remarks, we will open up the line to Q&A. The press release and presentation are on our website. We intend to use the website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and complying with disclosure obligations under SEC Regulation FD. I would like to remind you that certain statements in this presentation and during Q&A may relate to future events and expectations and as such constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from these projections. Information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements is contained in our press release and in periodic reports filed with the SEC. I will now turn the call over to Adena. Adena Friedman: Thank you, Ato, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Before I start, I would like to welcome Ato Garrett to the Nasdaq team as our new Investor Relations Officer. I know he's looking forward to meeting each of you very soon. I will now turn to my remarks today, which will focus on Nasdaq's first quarter performance and the solid progress we're making to deliver on our strategic objectives. I will then turn the call over to Ann for a review of our financial results. Let's begin with the current market landscape. Nasdaq continued to perform well, what was clearly a very dynamic operating environment, with a shock to the banking sector happening amid an already uncertain macro backdrop. During this challenging period, we delivered solid financial performance, while demonstrating operating and strategic momentum across each of our divisions. We achieved a new milestone for our anti-financial crime division with the signing in April of our first Tier 1 client with over $1 trillion in assets for our fraud solutions, including the comprehensive fraud detection capabilities across wires, ACH and checks, as well as case management and reporting functionality. We maintained our leading position in US cash equities and equity derivatives trading, while seeing strong demand for both our ESG services and our SaaS-based market technology solutions. Overall, the current uncertain financial backdrop highlights the value of our diverse platform of mission-critical solutions. In the first quarter, we also saw a generational technology breakthrough with the emergence of new artificial intelligence tools called generative AI. While the debate surrounding use cases for generative AI needs time to evolve, it is clear to us that companies that have invested in modern technologies, including cloud architecture and deployment, modern APIs and machine learning are poised to take advantage of this new era of technological advancement. At Nasdaq, we've been focused on investments to modernize our technology across our businesses, and therefore, we're well positioned to incorporate more advanced AI capabilities in the future. Against this evolving economic and technological backdrop, our team remained hyper-focused on delivering for our clients. Our results underscore our ability to navigate successfully amid a dynamic market environment and to deliver on our long-term commitment to provide world-leading platforms that improve the liquidity, transparency and integrity of the global economy. Now let's turn to our results. I'm very pleased to report Nasdaq's solid financial performance for the first quarter of 2023. We achieved $914 million in net revenues, an increase of 2% compared to the prior year period, an increase of 4% on an organic basis, excluding the impact of changes in FX and an acquisition divestiture. Revenues across our Solutions businesses were $646 million, up 4% from the prior year period, driven by organic growth of 5%, partially offset by the impact of changes in FX. Excluding the Index business, which declined by 10% due to a continued weak beta backdrop, revenues in our Solutions businesses increased 8% organically compared to the prior year period. Our total annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, increased 7% to $2 billion. Annualized SaaS revenues totaled $729 million for the first quarter, which represents an annual growth rate of 11%. Our SaaS revenues now comprise 36% of total company ARR. Across each of our divisions, we delivered well for our clients during the quarter. In our Capital Access Platforms division, we delivered $416 million in total revenue in the first quarter. Despite growth in data, as well as in workflow and insights, headwinds across our Listings and Index businesses resulted in flat organic revenue for capital access platforms year-over-year. Index experienced a 10% revenue decline and Listings was stable year-over-year. While our Index business continues to show year-over-year decline due to higher market levels at the start of last year, during the first quarter, we did experience a 5% improvement in average AUM from the fourth quarter of 2022. If the markets continue to demonstrate some level of recovery from last year, we should experience an improving year-over-year index performance as we continue through 2023. Data and Listing Services revenues grew 4% organically, driven largely by higher international demand for our proprietary data during the period. Our Workflow and Insights business revenue grew 5% organically, which reflects continued demand for our IR, ESG and analytics solutions, as clients navigate a dynamic and challenging market environment. Turning next to our Market Platforms division. We delivered $413 million in total revenues during the first quarter, a 6% organic increase from prior year period. Amid a volatile capital markets environment, our core trading services business experienced strong performance in North American markets, where we saw double-digit revenue growth, partially offset by a decline in our European markets revenues, primarily reflecting lower value traded and cash equities due to market declines in a softer volume environment. In the US, we continue to provide our clients with the premier trading experience, while optimizing the revenue and capture mix for both US cash equities and multiply listed equity options. In Marketplace Technology, we delivered 11% revenue growth, driven by strong results in both trade management services and market technology. During the quarter, we signed a Marketplace Services platform agreement with an innovative carbon trading platform in -- sorry, carbon trading marketplace in Latin America, as well as a new European risk modeling customer. We also signed a multiyear extension and expansion with a Tier 1 bank for our trading platform. Finally, turning to our Anti-Financial Crime division, we delivered $84 million in total revenue in the first quarter, an 18% organic increase from the prior year period and a 16% increase, excluding the impact of the deferred revenue write-down in the first quarter of 2022. Revenues in our fraud detection and anti-money laundering solutions or what we call our [indiscernible] solutions, grew 30% compared to the first quarter of 2022 or 27% excluding the impact of the deferred revenue write-down. The overall anti-financial crime business saw continued growth with 42 new ASC clients during the period. Our first quarter financial performance also illustrates the progress we've made to capitalize on certain growth opportunities that are aligned with three key trends that we believe are shaping the financial system. First, the modernization of markets where we can deliver innovation that powers the world's economies and enhances the underlying market infrastructure. Second, the development of the ESG ecosystem, where we help companies and investors successfully navigate increasingly complex reporting frameworks, access more seamless roots to capital and achieve their net zero or sustainability objectives. And third, the increasing need for advanced anti-financial crime technology, where we can enhance the integrity of the financial system through emerging technologies, including cloud and AI, coupled with end-to-end workflow solutions for our clients. In this regard, I'd like to provide two highlights for the quarter. First, our focus on markets modernization continues to deliver innovation that enhances the liquidity and the underlying market infrastructure that powers the world's economies. From the successful migration of Nasdaq MRX, which is one of our six options markets to the cloud infrastructure in the fourth quarter of last year in partnership with AWS, we announced during the first quarter our plans to migrate our second options market to the AWS Edge Cloud by the end of 2023. Second, as financial institutions make investments in technologies to detect and fight financial crime, in early April, we are very pleased to sign our first global Tier 1 client with over $1 trillion in assets to our fraud solution, including comprehensive fraud detection capabilities across wires, ACH and checks as well as case management and regulatory reporting functionality. Additionally, we signed another Tier 2 client to our enterprise anti-money laundering solution during the period. These signings further demonstrate our ability to displace legacy providers and manual processes through our cloud-based and market-proven solutions. As we look ahead, I want to take a moment here to discuss in more detail the breakthrough developments in the field of artificial intelligence, which have captivated businesses across all industries concerning its applicability and impact. As a result of our years of investment in our cloud architected market solutions and SaaS applications, coupled with our recent acquisitions of advanced cloud-based investment analytics and anti-financial crime solutions, I believe Nasdaq is uniquely positioned within our sector to play a leading role with this technology in the future through the responsible deployment of AI to drive meaningful impact to our business, products and clients. To-date, we've been very intentional in migrating critical workloads and capabilities into a cloud environment with modern APIs to support client connectivity and functionality. We've also built unique data sets across various areas of our business. Both are foundational to our ability to leverage this generational shift in the technology. While we're just beginning the process of evaluating specific ideas for the use of generative AI in our products and across our business operations, we see compelling opportunities to lever broader AI models, including deep reinforcement learning, predictive control and computer vision across our business divisions to support our strategic efforts to enhance the liquidity, transparency and integrity of the financial ecosystem. This is already happening in various elements of our business today. For example, in our anti-financial crime business, Verafin has integrated AI and machine learning into their solutions and capabilities since their founding 20 years ago. The combination of the advanced data sets combined with the self-learning capabilities of the AI and machine learning model is a key differentiator for the product. This improves the efficiency in the banking industry's daily compliance processes and achieved a step change in their ability to detect and stop money laundering, fraud and market abuse across their networks as well as to reduce false positives. In our Market Platforms division, we're in advanced stages of new product developments that incorporate AI, including new dynamic order types that improve our clients' fill rates while minimizing market impact. In fact, we've submitted for regulatory approval, our first AI-based market order or market order type, which is context aware, meaning that it is designed to incorporate awareness of market conditions on a real-time basis. As we seek out more ways to leverage AI across other parts of our business, we intend to take a principled approach to leveraging generative AI for the right purpose. Our data scientists and agile development teams will continue their research and development responsibly, so that our regulated and unregulated businesses can deploy this technology to create and maintain fairness across markets and develop more advanced solutions to fight crime. We look forward to updating you on our progress with these opportunities in the quarters to come as we continue our journey to become the trusted fabric of the global financial system. Before I turn the call over to Ann, I'd like to offer some operating environment as we move further into 2023. When we gathered in January for our fourth quarter results call, we discussed some of the impacts and market driven headwinds that we are beginning to see related to the market environment and the uncertainty in the global economy. As we progressed through the first quarter, as we expected, we saw a decrease in the total number of operating company IPOs versus the prior year period, as companies put their IPO plans on pause while investors closely monitored interest rates and correlated inflation figures. Despite the slower start to the year, we maintained our track record for winning new operating company listings across our US and European markets in the first quarter. In the US, we welcomed 30 new operating company IPOs during the period for a 91% win rate, bringing seven of the top 10 IPOs by proceeds raised. In addition, there's a significant backlog of operating companies in the pipeline with 147 active operating companies on file with the SEC to go public and committed to Nasdaq, which is a 10% increase versus the fourth quarter of 2022 and a 25% increase versus the prior year period. Our team continues to be in close contact with these companies, and we believe that we are well-positioned to capture future listing activity once the IPO window reopens. Beyond listings, we're still seeing elongated sales cycles in our Workflow and Insights businesses. As we previously observed, while overall interest in client demand for our Workflow and Insight solutions remains healthy, the process for some clients is taking longer as they escalate buying decisions through more levels of approval. Demand for our strategic focus areas, including our anti-financial crime solutions, our ESG solutions for corporates and our modern market solutions for established exchanges continues to be strong and largely unaffected by the market environment at this stage. Overall, we're very fortunate to have deep and trusted relationships with our clients who rely on us even more during complex operating environments. For example, during periods of heightened volatility, pensions and endowments often need to make swift asset allocation decisions to manage their portfolios, which can increase their reliance on our analytics solutions. Similarly, for our public company clients, these cycles can drive demand for our Investor Relations solutions as company leaders seek shareholder activity insights in real-time. As the global markets demonstrate sustained volatility, our market technology clients are focused on modernizing their market infrastructure to improve their agility and addressing client needs while improving – also improving the resiliency and scalability of their markets. And within our anti-financial crime business, the disruption caused by the banking crisis has caused – has resulted in clients moving deposits at unprecedented rates. Because of our cloud-based consortium data models, our fraud and AML solutions are instrumental in helping banks monitor payments and behavioral changes. These patterns underscore how our diverse pattern – our diverse platform of mission-critical solutions allows us to maintain our competitive strength through dynamic periods of uncertainty like we've experienced during the quarter. With our continued client engagement, coupled with the long-term investments we're making in our future, we remain confident in our medium-term revenue growth outlook for our Solutions businesses. And with that, I will now turn it over -- turn the call over to Ann, to review the financial details. Ann Dennison: Thank you, Adena, and good morning, everyone. I also want to extend a warm welcome to Ato Garrett as Nasdaq's Investor Relations Officer. My commentary will primarily focus on our non-GAAP results, and all comparisons will be to the prior year period unless otherwise noted. Reconciliations of U.S. GAAP to non-GAAP results can be found in our press release as well as in a file located in the Financials section of our Investor Relations website at ir.nasdaq.com. I will start by reviewing first quarter 2023 performance beginning on slide 10 of the presentation. The 2% increase in reported net revenue of $914 million is the net result of organic growth of 4%, including a 5% organic increase in the Solutions businesses and a 3% organic increase in Trading Services, partially offset by a 2% net negative impact from changes in FX rates and acquisitions and divestitures. Moving to operating profit and margins. Non-GAAP operating income increased 3%, while the non-GAAP operating margin of 52% was unchanged from the prior year period. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Nasdaq was $339 million or $0.69 per diluted share, compared to $329 million or $0.66 per diluted share in the prior year period. Turning to slide 11. As Adena mentioned earlier, ARR totaled $2 billion, an increase of 7% from the prior year period, while annualized SaaS revenues totaled $729 million, an increase of 11%. I will now review quarterly division results on slides 12 through 14. Starting with Market Platform -- the Market Platforms division, revenues increased $17 million or 4%, with an organic increase of 6%. Trading Services organics growth totaled 3%, with the increase primarily due to higher U.S. cash equity capture rate and higher U.S. equity derivatives volumes and capture rates, partially offset by lower European cash equities revenues due to lower industry volumes and market share and lower U.S. tape plan revenues due to lower collections from underreported usage. In Marketplace Technology, we delivered 11% revenue growth, driven by strong results in both Trade Management Services and Market Technology, which benefited from testing revenue and a large project delivery during the quarter. ARR totaled $510 million, an increase of 8% compared to the prior year period. The division operating margin of 55% in the first quarter 2023 reflects a one percentage point increase from the prior year period. Capital Access platforms revenues decreased $3 million or 1%, primarily due to the negative impact from changes in FX rates with organic revenue growth of $1 million. Growth in the division was mixed for the quarter with a decline in Index revenue significantly impacting the overall growth of the division. Specifically, index revenue declined by 10% compared to the first quarter of 2022, primarily driven by an 11% decline in average AUM from near record levels last year. Transactional licensing revenues were flat as a 20% decline in trading volumes in futures contracts linked to the Nasdaq 100 Index was offset by higher pricing per contract and favorable mix. Additionally, we saw net inflows over the trailing 12 months of $23 billion. In Listings, we maintained our leadership position with a 91% IPO win rate for US operating companies. The Nasdaq stock market welcomed seven of the 10 largest US operating company IPOs by capital raise in the first quarter of 2023, including NEXTracker, which raised over $600 million in proceeds as well as the spin-switch of GE Healthcare. In data, we have seen an increase in proprietary data revenues, driven largely by higher international demand. Workflow and Insights revenue increased 5% organically compared to the first quarter of 2022, reflecting growth in our ESG, IR and Analytics businesses. ARR for Capital Access platforms totaled $1.2 billion, an increase of 5% compared to the prior year period. The division operating margin was 54% in the first quarter of 2023, a decrease of one percentage point from the prior year period. Anti-Financial Crime revenue increased $12 million or 17% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Organic growth was 18% in the period or 16% when excluding the impact of the deferred revenue write-down of $1 million in the prior year period. The growth reflects healthy demand for fraud detection and anti-money laundering solutions as well as our SaaS-based surveillance solutions. Specifically, our fraud detection and AML solutions revenues grew 27% compared to the first quarter of 2022, excluding the impact of the deferred revenue write-down. Surveillance revenues grew modestly compared to the first quarter of 2022, as growth in subscription revenues was partially offset by lower professional fees. ARR for Anti-Financial Crime totaled $321 million, an increase of 15% compared to the prior year period. Signed ARR, which also includes ARR for new contracts signed, but not yet commenced, totaled $354 million, an increase of 20% versus the prior year period. The Anti-Financial Crime division operating margin was 27% in the first quarter of 2023 versus 21% in the prior year period. Turning to page 15 to review both expenses and guidance. Non-GAAP operating expenses increased $8 million to $436 million. The increase primarily reflects a $20 million organic increase, partially offset by a $13 million decrease from the impact of changes in FX rates. The organic expense increase is primarily driven by higher compensation and benefits expense and computer operations and data expense as we invest in our businesses. The higher compensation largely reflects our 2022 investment in new employees to drive long-term growth. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, which featured higher sales activity to finish the year, expenses declined primarily due to lower marketing, travel and professional services expense. During the quarter, we completed the first phase of a review of our real estate and facility capacity requirements due to our new and evolving work models. We reduced our footprint and recorded an impairment charge of $17 million related to our lease assets and related leasehold improvements. We are updating our 2023 non-GAAP operating expense guidance to a range of $1.78 billion to $1.84 billion. The midpoint of the expense guidance range is unchanged and still represents an increase of just over 5%, including 1% related to our digital asset strategy. The increase primarily reflects our continued investments to drive growth across ESG, anti-financial crime and market modernization. The second quarter will reflect our annual merit adjustments and equity grants and therefore, we expect expenses to increase about $20 million from the first quarter of 2023. Assuming stable performance and exchange rates, we currently expect 2023 expenses to be near the middle of the guidance range. Turning to Slide 16. Debt decreased by $290 million versus 4Q 2022 primarily due to a net paydown of $317 million of commercial paper, partially offset by a $26 million increase in Eurobond book values caused by a stronger euro. Our total debt to trailing 12 months non-GAAP EBITDA ratio ended the period at 2.6 times down from 2.7 times in the fourth quarter of 2022, and there are no long-term debt maturities until 2026. With our strong balance sheet and cash flow generation, including $1.5 billion of free cash flow on a trailing 12-month basis, we continue to be well positioned to support growth in a variety of macroeconomic backdrops. During the first quarter of 2023, the company paid common stock dividends in the aggregate of $98 million and repurchased shares for $159 million. The repurchases complete our objective to offset employee share dilution for the year. As of March 31, 2023, there was an aggregate $491 million remaining under the Board authorized share repurchase program. Additionally, we are announcing today a 10% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share. In closing today, Nasdaq's first quarter results reflect a continuation of the company's ability to consistently perform well across a wide range of operating environments. Thank you for your time, and I will turn it back over to the operator for Q&A. Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And I show our first question comes from the line of Rich Repetto from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Michael Cho from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm from UBS. Please go ahead. A – Adena Friedman: Thank you. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Owen Lau from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. A – Adena Friedman: Sure. Yes. It's been a big topic of conversation internally. We've had some fun with ChatGPT internally, by the way, with -- so we've had a good time like learning about it. But at the same time, it is quite serious in terms of where we see opportunities to leverage the AI across the business. So as I mentioned, we already are leveraging AI and AFC, and that's a very known use case for us. We have real opportunities also to bring more of that into our surveillance capabilities. And so that's been a really fun collaboration across Verafin and the surveillance team. We also have -- and I mentioned that we are starting to work with AI in our markets. And I would point to a couple of things. First, actually, on just managing our market infrastructure. We're using some of the predictive AI tools to be able to make sure that we're managing our -- doing capacity planning and managing our servers in a really, really dynamic way. And I think that's been really helpful to our infrastructure team in thinking about just managing infrastructure in general. But also on the markets and in the markets, we have our AI-driven order type, which is called Dynamic Melo, Midpoint Extended Life Order, that we have on file with the SEC. So, -- and then we also use machine learning for strike optimization in our options markets already. So, that's already a known programs in production that helps manage and -- manage the strikes across the options market because it's kind of a growing pile of strikes and you have to think about which ones are actually being used and optimized. But the other area where we're just starting to leverage the technology and find use cases is in the -- what we call in the Capital Access Platforms business. We've been doing some intelligent data scraping for our ESG business to help bring more information to corporates and to provide them more insights into the ESG characteristics of them and their peers. We also have just an incredibly rich data set across all of our insights and workflow tools. And so we want to find new ways that we can provide insights to investors and corporates to help them manage their business. So, we're just starting to figure out how we can use that there. And then we do already use natural language processing to help our analysts write reports for clients. So, that's an area that we've been using it for quite some time. Lastly, on the point of regulation, I think this next generation of AI has -- as you know, AI is a technology, it's a tool. It doesn't have a personality even though people like to say it does. It's really the people who use the tool that create the personality for good or bad. And we definitely see the opportunity for bad actors to use these tools and they don't have regulators. They're just -- criminals are not subject -- they don't subject themselves at least to regulation. So, it's really important that the regulators make sure that the good actors like Nasdaq and those that are trying to protect the system also have access to the same tools so that we can actually use the most advanced technology available to protect the market and to protect the financial system. And we do think that smart regulation is appropriate here. But also just really thinking about it proactively and embracing the technology for the right purposes, I think, is the right starting point for regulators to use, and we're already engaging with regulators and legislators on this topic. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Michael Cyprys from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Brian Bedell from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Kyle Voigt from KBW. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Craig Siegenthaler from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Alexander Blostein from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Simon Clinch from Atlantic Equities. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show, our next question comes from the line of Andrew Bond from Rosenblatt Securities. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Dan Fannon from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm from UBS. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. And I show our last question comes from the line of Brian Bedell from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Operator: Thank you. I'm showing no further questions in the queue. This concludes our Q&A session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference back to Adena Friedman for closing remarks. Adena Friedman: Great. Well, thank you very much for your time today, and we look forward to continuing our discussions throughout the year on the progress that we aim to make against our strategic priorities. And thanks a lot for your questions. Talk to you later. Have a great day. Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for attending. You may all disconnect.
Zenas BioPharma's Strategic Moves to Attract Top Talent and NASDAQ's Market Position
- Zenas BioPharma grants a non-qualified stock option to a new employee as an inducement under NASDAQ:NDAQ Listing Rule 5635(c)(4), aiming to incentivize with 112,000 shares at an exercise price of $9.97.
- The company's focus on developing therapies for autoimmune diseases with its lead product candidate, obexelimab, positions it as a key player in the biopharmaceutical industry.
- NASDAQ's financial metrics, including a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 38.75 and a price-to-sales ratio of 6.33, reflect its market value and impact on companies like Zenas BioPharma.
Zenas BioPharma, a clinical-stage global biopharmaceutical company, is making strategic moves to attract top talent. Recently, it granted a non-qualified stock option to a new employee, allowing the purchase of 112,000 shares of its common stock. This inducement grant, under NASDAQ:NDAQ Listing Rule 5635(c)(4), aims to incentivize the new hire. The stock option has a ten-year term with an exercise price of $9.97 per share, matching the closing price on June 16, 2025. The option vests over four years, with 25% vesting after one year and the rest in equal monthly installments over the next three years, contingent on continued service.
Zenas BioPharma focuses on developing therapies for autoimmune diseases. Its lead product candidate, obexelimab, is a bifunctional monoclonal antibody targeting CD19 and FcγRIIb. This innovative approach aims to inhibit the activity of cells involved in autoimmune diseases without depleting them, offering a potentially effective treatment for chronic conditions. This focus on innovation positions Zenas as a key player in the biopharmaceutical industry.
The NASDAQ, symbol NDAQ, is a significant player in the financial market, with Oppenheimer recently adjusting its rating to "Outperform." At the time, the stock was priced at $85.95, and Oppenheimer raised the price target from $85 to $96. This reflects confidence in NASDAQ's performance and potential growth, which can impact companies like Zenas listed on the exchange.
NASDAQ's financial metrics provide insight into its market position. With a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 38.75 and a price-to-sales ratio of 6.33, the market values its revenue and earnings highly. The enterprise value to sales ratio of 7.48 and enterprise value to operating cash flow ratio of 28.21 further highlight its valuation. These metrics are crucial for companies like Zenas, as they navigate the financial landscape.
The NASDAQ's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84 indicates moderate leverage, while a current ratio of 0.98 suggests its ability to cover short-term liabilities. These financial indicators are essential for companies like Zenas BioPharma, as they rely on the stability and performance of the exchange for their stock options and overall market presence.
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Stock Update and Market Insights
- Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) maintains a "Mixed" rating from Benchmark with a "hold" action as of March 13, 2025.
- The Nasdaq Composite index saw a gain of over 1% recently, buoyed by significant increases in Nvidia and Tesla shares.
- Despite positive market movements, the CNN Money Fear and Greed index shows market sentiment remains in the "Extreme Fear" zone.
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is a global technology company that serves the capital markets and other industries. It operates the Nasdaq Stock Market, a leading stock exchange in the United States. Nasdaq competes with other major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).
On March 13, 2025, Benchmark updated its rating for NDAQ to a "Mixed" grade, maintaining a "hold" action. At the time of this announcement, the stock price was $72.98. The stock has shown some volatility, trading between $72.21 and $73.86 today. Over the past year, it has reached a high of $84.15 and a low of $57.96.
The Nasdaq Composite index experienced a gain of over 1% recently, driven by significant surges in Nvidia and Tesla shares, which rose by approximately 6.4% and over 7%, respectively. This positive movement came after the release of inflation data, which showed a decline in the Consumer Price Index from 3% to 2.8% year-over-year in February, surpassing analysts' expectations.
Despite these positive developments, the CNN Money Fear and Greed index indicated that market sentiment remains in the "Extreme Fear" zone. Additionally, the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, leading to retaliatory tariffs from the EU and Canada on billions of dollars worth of U.S. goods. Most sectors on the S&P 500 closed positively, with consumer discretionary, information technology, and communication services leading the gains.
NDAQ's current stock price of $72.98 reflects an increase of 0.69, or 0.95%. The company has a market capitalization of approximately $41.97 billion. The trading volume for the day is 2,431,178 shares on the NASDAQ exchange, indicating active investor interest.
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Stock Update and Market Insights
- Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) maintains a "Mixed" rating from Benchmark with a "hold" action as of March 13, 2025.
- The Nasdaq Composite index saw a gain of over 1% recently, buoyed by significant increases in Nvidia and Tesla shares.
- Despite positive market movements, the CNN Money Fear and Greed index shows market sentiment remains in the "Extreme Fear" zone.
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is a global technology company that serves the capital markets and other industries. It operates the Nasdaq Stock Market, a leading stock exchange in the United States. Nasdaq competes with other major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).
On March 13, 2025, Benchmark updated its rating for NDAQ to a "Mixed" grade, maintaining a "hold" action. At the time of this announcement, the stock price was $72.98. The stock has shown some volatility, trading between $72.21 and $73.86 today. Over the past year, it has reached a high of $84.15 and a low of $57.96.
The Nasdaq Composite index experienced a gain of over 1% recently, driven by significant surges in Nvidia and Tesla shares, which rose by approximately 6.4% and over 7%, respectively. This positive movement came after the release of inflation data, which showed a decline in the Consumer Price Index from 3% to 2.8% year-over-year in February, surpassing analysts' expectations.
Despite these positive developments, the CNN Money Fear and Greed index indicated that market sentiment remains in the "Extreme Fear" zone. Additionally, the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, leading to retaliatory tariffs from the EU and Canada on billions of dollars worth of U.S. goods. Most sectors on the S&P 500 closed positively, with consumer discretionary, information technology, and communication services leading the gains.
NDAQ's current stock price of $72.98 reflects an increase of 0.69, or 0.95%. The company has a market capitalization of approximately $41.97 billion. The trading volume for the day is 2,431,178 shares on the NASDAQ exchange, indicating active investor interest.
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Surpasses Earnings Expectations in Q4 2024
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is a leading global technology company and stock exchange operator, offering a wide range of services including trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing, information, and public company services. Competing with other major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Nasdaq stands out in the financial markets for its innovative approach and robust performance.
On January 29, 2025, Nasdaq reported its fourth-quarter earnings for 2024, revealing an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.76. This figure not only exceeded the estimated $0.74 but also showcased the company's ability to outperform expectations. The reported revenue was approximately $1.23 billion, slightly above the estimated $1.23 billion, indicating stable revenue generation despite the competitive landscape.
Despite the positive earnings report, Nasdaq's stock experienced a decline of 3.76%. This drop might be attributed to market dynamics or investor sentiment, as highlighted by Zacks. The company's EPS of $0.76 also marked an improvement from the previous year's $0.72, reflecting growth in profitability. Nasdaq's financial ratios provide further insight into its performance.
With a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 48.20, investors are willing to pay a premium for each dollar of earnings. The price-to-sales ratio of 6.58 and enterprise value to sales ratio of 8.01 indicate the company's market valuation relative to its revenue and total value. The company's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93 suggests a balanced approach to financing its assets. Meanwhile, the current ratio of 0.95 shows its ability to cover short-term liabilities with short-term assets. These metrics collectively highlight Nasdaq's financial health and operational efficiency, making it a noteworthy entity in the global financial markets.
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) Surpasses Earnings Expectations in Q4 2024
Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is a leading global technology company and stock exchange operator, offering a wide range of services including trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing, information, and public company services. Competing with other major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Nasdaq stands out in the financial markets for its innovative approach and robust performance.
On January 29, 2025, Nasdaq reported its fourth-quarter earnings for 2024, revealing an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.76. This figure not only exceeded the estimated $0.74 but also showcased the company's ability to outperform expectations. The reported revenue was approximately $1.23 billion, slightly above the estimated $1.23 billion, indicating stable revenue generation despite the competitive landscape.
Despite the positive earnings report, Nasdaq's stock experienced a decline of 3.76%. This drop might be attributed to market dynamics or investor sentiment, as highlighted by Zacks. The company's EPS of $0.76 also marked an improvement from the previous year's $0.72, reflecting growth in profitability. Nasdaq's financial ratios provide further insight into its performance.
With a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 48.20, investors are willing to pay a premium for each dollar of earnings. The price-to-sales ratio of 6.58 and enterprise value to sales ratio of 8.01 indicate the company's market valuation relative to its revenue and total value. The company's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93 suggests a balanced approach to financing its assets. Meanwhile, the current ratio of 0.95 shows its ability to cover short-term liabilities with short-term assets. These metrics collectively highlight Nasdaq's financial health and operational efficiency, making it a noteworthy entity in the global financial markets.
Nasdaq Upgraded to Buy as EPS Growth Outlook Strengthens
Deutsche Bank analysts upgraded Nasdaq OMX Group (NASDAQ:NDAQ) to Buy from Hold, raising the price target to $98 from $80 on the stock. The upgrade reflects increased confidence in Nasdaq’s ability to achieve consistent double-digit EPS growth over the 2025-2027 forecast horizon, distinguishing it from its peers in the securities exchange sector.
After several years of limited EPS expansion—6% growth in 2022 and 2023, and an anticipated sub-1% growth in 2024 due to initial dilution from the Adenza acquisition—Nasdaq is now positioned to accelerate its earnings trajectory. The Adenza deal, completed in late 2023, is expected to contribute meaningfully to Nasdaq’s financial performance over time, transitioning from a short-term drag to a long-term growth catalyst.
According to the analysts, this stronger growth outlook sets Nasdaq apart from its peers, who are projected to deliver only single-digit EPS growth through at least 2025 and 2026. The differentiated profile underscores Nasdaq’s strategic advantages and positions it as an attractive investment opportunity in the exchange sector.
Nasdaq Upgraded to Buy as EPS Growth Outlook Strengthens
Deutsche Bank analysts upgraded Nasdaq OMX Group (NASDAQ:NDAQ) to Buy from Hold, raising the price target to $98 from $80 on the stock. The upgrade reflects increased confidence in Nasdaq’s ability to achieve consistent double-digit EPS growth over the 2025-2027 forecast horizon, distinguishing it from its peers in the securities exchange sector.
After several years of limited EPS expansion—6% growth in 2022 and 2023, and an anticipated sub-1% growth in 2024 due to initial dilution from the Adenza acquisition—Nasdaq is now positioned to accelerate its earnings trajectory. The Adenza deal, completed in late 2023, is expected to contribute meaningfully to Nasdaq’s financial performance over time, transitioning from a short-term drag to a long-term growth catalyst.
According to the analysts, this stronger growth outlook sets Nasdaq apart from its peers, who are projected to deliver only single-digit EPS growth through at least 2025 and 2026. The differentiated profile underscores Nasdaq’s strategic advantages and positions it as an attractive investment opportunity in the exchange sector.
