Nasdaq (NDAQ) Reports Mixed Volumes In Q1, Shares Rally

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) reported mixed volumes for first-quarter 2017. Nonetheless, shares gained 0.2% during the trading session, reflecting investor optimism over the company’s growth potential.

While U.S. equity options volume surged 72% year over year to 385 million contracts, revenue per contract was 15 cents, down by a penny on a year-over-year basis. Market share jumped to 42.5% European options. Futures volume, however, decreased 21% year over year to 21.7 million contracts in the first quarter. Revenue per contract was 42 cents, up by a penny on a year-over-year basis.

Under its cash equities, Nasdaq’s U.S. matched equity volume in the reported month totaled 74.7 billion shares, down 20% from year-ago quarter. Further, European equity volume declined 4.6% year over year to $206 billion. Moreover, U.S. Fixed income volume in the first quarter decreased 16% year over year to $5 billion. Further, European fixed income volume was 7.2 million contracts, up 16% year over year.

In the first quarter, there were 3,468 listed companies on Nasdaq compared with 3,458 in the year-ago quarter. Total listings improved 2.7% over the year-ago quarter to 3,800.

Year to date, Nasdaq’s shares have gained 3.34%, underperforming the 6.02% increase for the Zacks categorized Securities Exchanges industry. Nonetheless, the stock has been witnessing upward revisions in estimates over the last seven days. The company is set to report first-quarter earnings on Apr 26, before the market opens. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $1.06 on revenues of $599 million, translating to a year-over-year increase of 12.2% for the top line and 16% for the bottom line.

However, our proven model cannot conclusively state if the company will beat earnings because the company has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) and an Earnings ESP of -0.94%. As it is, we caution against Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Rank #4 or 5) going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

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

Concurrently, the company reported improved Mar 2017 volumes, reflecting an increase in trading activities. U.S. equity options volume surged 81.3% year over year to 136 million contracts in March. The company’s European options and futures volume was 8.1 million contracts, up 2.5% year over year.

Under its cash equities, Nasdaq’s U.S. matched equity volume in the reported month totaled 28.8 billion shares, up 0.3% from the Mar 2016 level. Further, European equity volume grew 14% from the prior-year month to $73 billion. Moreover, U.S. fixed income volume in March jumped 5.9% year over year to $1.8 billion.

European fixed income volume was 2.8 million contracts for Mar 2017, up 27% from prior-year month. In addition, European energy clearing and trading totaled 222 Terawatt hours, down from 225 Terawatt hours in Mar 2016.

Recently, securities exchanges CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) , Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) and MarketAxess Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:MKTX) also reported their respective March volumes. While CME Group’s average daily volume increased 18% to 16.9 million contracts per day, Intercontinental Exchange’s average daily volume climbed 30% to 6.7 million contracts. MarketAxess recorded a 32% increase in volumes, on a sequential basis, to $155.2 billion.

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