Nasdaq二季度EPS达1.07美元并超预期逾10%

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Introduction & Market Context
Nasdaq Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) presented its second quarter 2026 results on July 23, 2026, showcasing what executives described as an "outstanding" quarter marked by historic milestones and broad-based growth. The exchange operator and financial technology provider reported earnings per share of $1.07, marking the first time in company history that quarterly earnings exceeded $1 per share, while beating analyst expectations by more than 10%.
The company’s stock responded positively to the results, rising 1.98% in premarket trading to $92.70, with the current price at $92.64, up 1.91% from the previous close of $90.90. Trading within its 52-week range of $76.55 to $101.79, the shares reflected investor confidence in Nasdaq’s execution and diversified growth strategy.
"Nasdaq delivered an outstanding second quarter, defined by new records and milestones," said CEO Adena Friedman in the presentation. "We delivered double-digit growth across all three divisions, surpassed $1 trillion in Index ETP AUM, and listed SpaceX, the largest IPO in exchange history."
Quarterly Performance Highlights
The presentation detailed comprehensive financial performance across multiple dimensions, with the company achieving what management characterized as "exceptional performance" driven by strength across all three business divisions.
As shown in the following comprehensive performance table, Nasdaq delivered significant year-over-year growth across key metrics:
Net revenue reached $1.5 billion in the second quarter, representing 15% reported growth and 16% organic growth year-over-year. Solutions revenue, which comprises the Capital Access Platforms and Financial Technology segments, totaled $1.16 billion, up 17% from the prior year period and now representing 77% of total net revenue.
The company’s profitability metrics showed substantial improvement, with non-GAAP operating income rising 19% to $859 million and operating margin expanding 200 basis points to 57%. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.07 represented 25% growth year-over-year, exceeding the analyst consensus of $0.97 by $0.10.
The following revenue bridge illustrates the specific drivers behind Nasdaq’s 15% organic growth:
The waterfall chart reveals that existing client increases contributed 7.5 percentage points to growth, while new clients, cross-sells, and other innovations added 5.5 percentage points. Macro and beta factors contributed 4.0 percentage points, partially offset by 2.0 percentage points of churn. The company’s "alpha growth" — growth driven by factors within management’s control — reached 11.0%.
CFO Sarah Youngwood emphasized the financial discipline underlying these results: "Nasdaq’s second quarter results mark another quarter of excellent Solutions revenue growth, expanding operating margins, strong EPS growth, and robust cash flow generation."
Capital Access Platforms: Record-Breaking Quarter
The Capital Access Platforms division delivered particularly strong results, with adjusted revenue growth of 18% year-over-year. The segment encompasses data and listing services, index products, and workflow and insights solutions.
The presentation highlighted several operational achievements that underscore the division’s market leadership:
The most significant milestone was achieving record average Exchange-Traded Product (ETP) assets under management (AUM) of $1.014 trillion linked to Nasdaq indices, supported by record net inflows of $109 billion over the last twelve months, including $51 billion in the second quarter alone. This represents a year-over-year increase of $351 billion in average ETP AUM.
Nasdaq’s listings business demonstrated exceptional performance, welcoming 7 of the 10 largest operating company IPOs during the quarter, including SpaceX, which raised $86 billion in proceeds — the largest IPO in exchange history. The company achieved a 74% win rate in the quarter and captured 92% of total operating company proceeds raised from second-quarter IPOs.
The data business showed strong momentum with a 34% year-over-year increase in enterprise licenses, driven by artificial intelligence adoption and demand from digital-asset-native platforms. Index launched 34 new products in the quarter, including 17 international products and 11 institutional annuity products.
The following detailed financial breakdown shows the segment’s performance across its components:
Index revenue increased 35% on an adjusted basis to $271 million, driven by higher average ETP AUM and record derivatives volumes. Data and Listing Services revenue grew 9% to $217 million, while Workflow and Insights revenue increased 5% to $133 million. The division’s operating margin reached 63%, up 400 basis points from the prior year.
Financial Technology: Sustained Double-Digit Growth
The Financial Technology division continued its momentum with 15% organic revenue growth, marking the second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth across all subdivisions. The segment provides mission-critical technology solutions for financial crime management, regulatory compliance, and capital markets operations.
The presentation detailed strong client acquisition and expansion metrics:
The division signed 58 new clients, executed 7 cross-sells, and secured 107 upsells during the quarter. Financial Crime Management Technology, anchored by the Verafin platform, signed 47 new small-and-medium bank clients and 6 enterprise deals, including 2 cross-sells. Notably, Verafin expanded its Agentic AI Workforce to 750 clients and launched two new agentic workers: the Agentic AML Analyst and Agentic Fraud Analyst.
Regulatory Technology signed 9 new clients, including 2 cross-sells, and 63 upsells. The Surveillance business secured its first Tier 1 client win with its AI-powered Calibration Copilot. Capital Markets Technology signed 7 new clients, including 3 cross-sells, and 42 upsells, with Calypso expanding its global presence to more than 70 countries.
The financial performance reflected this operational momentum:
Total Financial Technology revenue reached $539 million, with Financial Crime Management Technology growing 22% organically, Regulatory Technology advancing 13%, and Capital Markets Technology increasing 14%. The division’s annualized recurring revenue (ARR) grew 16% to $1.870 billion, while annualized SaaS revenue surged 20% to $789 million.
Market Services: Record Revenue and Market Leadership
The Market Services division, which operates Nasdaq’s exchange businesses, delivered record quarterly net revenue of $340 million, representing 11% organic growth year-over-year.
The presentation highlighted the division’s competitive positioning and operational achievements:
Nasdaq maintained its #1 position with 29% market share in multi-listed U.S. options and 75% market share in European cash equities markets across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The company also held the #1 position as a single venue of liquidity for Nasdaq-listed U.S. cash equities.
U.S. equity options achieved record matched average daily contract volume of 19.3 million contracts, while U.S. equities saw record average industry daily volume of 20.2 billion shares. U.S. index options volume grew 76% to a record average of 111,000 daily contracts. The company’s index options revenue more than doubled in the quarter for the fourth consecutive quarter.
The following detailed segment breakdown illustrates performance across asset classes:
U.S. equity derivatives net revenue increased 8% organically to $123 million, benefiting from record industry volumes and volatility performance. U.S. cash equities revenue surged 21% to $128 million, driven by record industry volumes, market share gains, and improved capture. European cash equities revenue grew 6% to $32 million on higher industry volumes and market share. The division achieved a 64% operating margin, up 100 basis points year-over-year.
Recurring Revenue Growth and Business Model Strength
A key theme throughout the presentation was the strength and durability of Nasdaq’s recurring revenue model, which provides visibility and stability to the company’s financial performance.
The following charts demonstrate the consistent growth trajectory:
Annualized Recurring Revenue reached $3.258 billion in the second quarter, representing 12% year-over-year organic growth. Annualized SaaS Revenue totaled $1.228 billion, up 15% organically, and now represents 38% of total ARR. This growing SaaS mix reflects the company’s ongoing business model evolution toward higher-quality, more predictable revenue streams.
The presentation emphasized that these recurring revenue streams span across both the Capital Access Platforms and Financial Technology divisions, with particularly strong growth in the technology segments where subscription-based models dominate.
Consolidated Financial Performance
The company’s consolidated results demonstrated the operating leverage inherent in its business model, with revenue growth significantly outpacing expense growth.
The following comprehensive table breaks down performance by segment:
Non-GAAP operating expenses increased 10% to $641 million, well below the 15% adjusted net revenue growth rate. This discipline resulted in 200 basis points of operating margin expansion to 57% and EBITDA margin improvement to 60%.
The company generated $605 million in non-GAAP net income, up 23% year-over-year, with the effective tax rate holding steady at 22.8%. On a per-share basis, diluted EPS of $1.07 benefited from both earnings growth and share count reduction, with weighted average diluted shares declining to 567.8 million from 579.0 million in the prior year period.
Financial Health and Capital Allocation
Nasdaq’s presentation emphasized its strong balance sheet position and disciplined capital allocation strategy, which balances growth investments with shareholder returns.
The following leverage and cash flow metrics illustrate the company’s financial health:
The company reduced its gross leverage ratio to 2.6x at the end of the second quarter, down from 2.8x at the end of the first quarter. This deleveraging was driven by $162 million in net debt repayment, favorable foreign exchange movements, and $147 million in last-twelve-months EBITDA growth. Gross debt stood at $8.761 billion against LTM EBITDA of $3.336 billion.
Free cash flow totaled $477 million in the quarter and $2.2 billion over the last twelve months, representing a 97% free cash flow conversion ratio. The company returned $530 million to shareholders during the quarter through $174 million in dividends (representing a 31% annualized payout ratio) and $356 million in share repurchases. Year-to-date, Nasdaq has repurchased 10.4 million shares for $903 million.
The pre-tax weighted average cost of debt remained attractive at 3.7% at quarter-end, and the company maintains a well-laddered debt maturity profile with no significant near-term refinancing needs.
Strategic Initiatives and Innovation
Throughout the presentation, management highlighted several strategic initiatives that position Nasdaq for continued growth and market leadership. The company’s three strategic pillars — Liquidity, Transparency, and Integrity — frame its approach to serving global financial markets.
On the liquidity front, Nasdaq continues to modernize market structure, with plans to launch 23.5 trading on December 6, 2026, and event options scheduled for fourth-quarter introduction. These innovations extend trading hours and expand product offerings to meet evolving client needs.
For transparency, the company announced agreements to sell Nasdaq Fund Secondaries to Nasdaq Private Market and to acquire Dasseti, an AI-powered due diligence platform. Nasdaq also launched the Data Link Model Context Protocol for enhanced client experience in agentic workflows, demonstrating its commitment to leveraging artificial intelligence across its product suite.
In the integrity pillar, the expansion of Verafin’s Agentic AI Workforce to 750 clients represents a significant milestone in deploying AI for financial crime detection. The technology addresses increasingly sophisticated fraud and criminal behavior across a network of 2,800 financial institutions.
Management emphasized that while AI monetization remains in early stages, client adoption is accelerating as institutions recognize the direct return on investment from automation. The company is taking a product-by-product approach to pricing, using both bundled offerings and freemium-style upsells depending on the specific solution.
Forward-Looking Guidance and Outlook
Nasdaq updated its full-year 2026 guidance to reflect stronger-than-expected business performance and associated investments in talent and market development.
The company raised its non-GAAP operating expense guidance to a range of $2.530 billion to $2.570 billion, up from the previous range of $2.485 billion to $2.545 billion. Management attributed the increase primarily to higher employee compensation tied to strong year-to-date revenue performance and increased marketing costs associated with a robust IPO market.
The company reiterated its non-GAAP tax rate guidance of 22.5% to 24.5% for the full year.
Looking beyond 2026, Nasdaq’s medium-term outlook calls for 6-10% growth in Capital Access Platforms, 10-14% growth in Financial Technology, and 9-12% growth in total Solutions revenue over a 3-5 year horizon, assuming a stable market backdrop. The company expects non-GAAP operating expenses to grow 5-8% over this period, implying continued margin expansion.
Management highlighted several growth drivers for the coming quarters, including a $200 million to $250 million variable accelerated share repurchase plan launched in July, continued rollout of AI tools across products, and tokenized equity initiatives in collaboration with partners like Kraken and the DTCC.
The presentation positioned Nasdaq as uniquely positioned to benefit from what executives described as "one of the most significant modernization periods in decades" for the financial system, encompassing 23.5 trading, tokenized assets, and artificial intelligence adoption.
Conclusion
Nasdaq’s second quarter 2026 presentation painted a picture of a company firing on all cylinders, with record-breaking performance across multiple dimensions. The achievement of $1.07 in quarterly earnings per share — a first in company history — symbolizes the progress Nasdaq has made in diversifying its business model, expanding margins, and capturing growth opportunities across the financial technology landscape.
The broad-based nature of the growth, with all three divisions delivering double-digit revenue increases, demonstrates the resilience of Nasdaq’s multi-faceted business model. From capturing the largest IPO in history to expanding its financial crime management technology footprint to maintaining market leadership in exchange operations, the company showed strength across its portfolio.
With a strong balance sheet, robust cash flow generation, and a clear strategic roadmap for innovation in areas like AI, extended trading hours, and tokenization, Nasdaq appears well-positioned to sustain its momentum. The raised expense guidance, while reflecting higher costs, also signals management’s confidence in the durability of revenue growth and willingness to invest in opportunities that promise attractive returns.
As global finance continues its digital transformation, Nasdaq’s role as both a market operator and technology provider positions it to benefit from multiple secular trends reshaping the industry.
Full presentation:
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