Nasdaq (NDAQ) Reports Y/Y Increase in Volume for February

Nasdaq, Inc. NDAQ reported impressive volumes in February. While the U.S. equity options volume increased 52.9% year over year to 185 million contracts, European options and futures volume rose 35.8% year over year to 9.1 million contracts.

Under its Cash Equities, Nasdaq’s U.S. matched equity volume in the month grossed 32.6 billion shares, up 21.1% from the prior-year quarter. European equity volume improved nearly 26% year over year to $88.3 billion.

Under its Fixed Income and Commodities, U.S. Fixed income volume in February declined 6.1% to $714 billion and European fixed income volume decreased 4.5% to 2.1 million contracts.

Notably, there were 4,180 listed companies on Nasdaq in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with 4,077 in the year-ago period. Total listings grew 2.5% year over year to 4,180.

Nasdaq aims for long-term growth by banking on organic means. The company is also in a bid to ramp up growth by reviewing operations. Hence, its intensified focus on its Market Technology and Information Services businesses bodes well, as the businesses offer great growth opportunities.

Its organic growth has also been boosted by the strategy of accelerating its non-trading revenue base, which includes market technology, listing and information revenues. The company’s organic growth in non-trading segments was 8% in 2019, primarily attributable to its Market Technology, Index, and Investment Data & Analytics businesses. Thus, Nasdaq expects growth from its index and analytics businesses, followed by a moderate rise in its exchange data products across the U.S. and Nordic equities, options and fixed income businesses.

Shares of the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 11% in the past six months compared with the industry’s rise of 6.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2020 earnings per share is pegged at $1.31, suggesting an improvement of 7.4% from the year-ago reported figure on 2.7% higher revenues.

 

 

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Recently, securities exchanges, namely Cboe Global Markets, Inc. CBOE, CME Group Inc. CME and Intercontinental Exchange Incorporation ICE, also reported monthly volumes. Cboe Global recorded an average daily volume (ADV) of 11.4 million contracts in February, up 64.6% year over year. CME Group recorded an ADV of 30.1 million contracts in the month, up 58% year over year. Intercontinental Exchange’s futures & options ADV was 7.6 million, up 39% year over year.

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