Nasdaq (NDAQ) Reports Mixed Q2 Volumes, June Volume Down

Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) reported mixed volumes for first-quarter 2019. While U.S. equity options volume increased 0.7% year over year to 420 million contracts, European options and futures volume rose 3.7% year over year to 22.7 million contracts.

Though revenues per contract for U.S. equity options remained in line at 15 cents, the same for European options and futures deceased 9.1% to 40 cents.

Under its cash equities, Nasdaq’s U.S. matched equity volume in the second quarter grossed 87.7 billion shares, up 4.6% from the prior-year quarter. European equity volume declined 18.5% year over year to $189 billion. While U.S. fixed income volume traded declined 29.63% year over year to $2.9 trillion, European fixed income volume remained in line at 7.5 million contracts.

In the second quarter, there were 3,735 listed companies on Nasdaq compared with 3,632 in the year-ago period. Total listings grew 2.4% year over year to 4,109.

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 Nasdaq gained 9.9% in the second quarter of 2019 compared with the industry's growth of 16.4%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in the first quarter is pegged at $1.19, indicating year-over-year improvement of 0.5% as revenues are estimated to rise 3.4%. Our proven model shows that the company is likely to beat estimates as it reports second quarter results on Jul 24. This is because it has the right combination of its Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and Earnings ESP of +4.27% makes prediction difficult. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Notably, Nasdaq reported disappointing June volumes. U.S. equity options volume declined 5% year over year to 132 million contracts. European options and futures volume was 6.3 million contracts, down 4.5% year over year.

Recently, MarketAxess Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:MKTX) , CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) and Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (NYSE:CBOE) reported trading volume for June 2019. While MarketAxess reported trading volume of $182.9 billion for the month, Cboe Global posted ADV of 7.3 million contracts, up 0.6% year over year. CME Group reported record ADV in Agricultural Commodities, Metals, Interest Rate options and Metals options for June 2019. Options volume of 5.7 million contracts surged 63%.

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

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