Nasdaq (NDAQ) Reports Impressive Q3 and September Volumes

Nasdaq, Inc. NDAQ reported solid volumes for third-quarter 2019. While U.S. equity options volume increased 6.6% year over year to 434 million contracts, European options and futures volume rose 20.4% year over year to 21.8 million contracts.

Though revenues per contract for U.S. equity options remained flat at 15 cents, the same for European options and futures deceased 18.7% to 39 cents.

Under its cash equities, Nasdaq’s U.S. matched equity volume in the third quarter grossed 90.2 billion shares, up 15.9% from the prior-year quarter. European equity volume declined 6.9% year over $3 trillion, European fixed income volume decreased 12.7% to 6.9 million contracts.

In the third quarter, there were 4,119 listed companies on Nasdaq compared with 4,059 in the year-ago period. Total listings grew 1.5% year over year to 4,119.

Nasdaq continues to witness growth in its index and analytics businesses, followed by moderate growth in exchange data products across U.S. and Nordic equities, options and fixed income businesses. The company is ramping up its non-transaction revenue base, which includes market technology, listing and information revenues. It is also expanding technology and analytics offerings. Nasdaq remains focused on core special marketplace platform businesses but intends to lower capital resources for investment in businesses that do not offer considerable growth for the company.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) provider of trading, clearing, marketplace technology, regulatory, securities listing, information and public and private company services gained 3% in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the industry's growth of 7.4%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter earnings is pegged at $1.22, indicating year-over-year improvement of 6.1% on 5.1% higher revenues.

Concurrently, Nasdaq reported September volumes. U.S. equity options volume increased 0.8% year over year to 133 million contracts. European options and futures volume increased 7.9% year over year to 6.8 million contracts.

Recently, MarketAxess Holdings MKTX, CME Group CME and Intercontinental Exchange ICE reported trading volume for September 2019. MarketAxess’ trading volume of $176.1 billion for the month consisted of $88.7 billion in U.S. high-grade volume, $83.9 billion in other credit volume, and $3.5 billion in liquid products volume. CME Group reported double-digit increase in Interest Rate options, Equity Indexes, Energy and Metals. Foreign Exchange and Agricultural Commodities reported single-digit decline in September ADV. Intercontinental Exchange’s September Commodities ADV increased 10.2% while Financial ADV improved nearly 2%.

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

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