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Nasdaq Chair and CEO Adena Friedman Reporting Q2 Earnings on CNBC’s Squawk Box
Nasdaq reported robust second quarter 2025 financial results, with net revenue reaching $1.3 billion—a 12% organic increase that reflects the company’s ability to deliver broad-based growth through market cycles and reinforces its position as a critical partner to global financial institutions.
“Nasdaq delivered an excellent second quarter performance amid a dynamic market environment,” said Adena Friedman, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Nasdaq. “Our ability to deliver broad-based growth through cycles is testament to our role as a partner to our clients, helping them capture strategic opportunities, manage risk and solidify their operational resilience.”
The company posted non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.85, up 24% from the prior year period. Solutions revenue, which encompasses the company’s Capital Access Platforms and Financial Technology segments, grew 10% to $991 million.
The company’s annualized recurring revenue (ARR) reached $2.9 billion, reflecting 9% organic growth, with annualized SaaS revenue climbing 12% organically to represent 37% of total ARR.
This momentum underscores Nasdaq’s transition toward more predictable, subscription-based revenue streams.
Technology Divisions Drive Growth Through Innovation
Financial Technology revenue increased 10% to $464 million, powered by strong client demand across all subdivisions. The division secured 57 new clients and achieved 130 upsells during the quarter, including a record seven cross-sells—evidence that the “One Nasdaq” strategy is proving effective.
Among the notable wins, Nasdaq Verafin notched 46 small-and-medium bank clients and signed its first proof of concept with a European Tier 1 bank, marking progress in its global expansion. The Financial Crime Management Technology business also landed three new enterprise clients, including a cross-sell and two upsells.
AxiomSL maintained strong momentum with existing clients, closing 34 upsells including the renewal of a large bank. Meanwhile, Surveillance signed six new clients, including two market operators and a European regulator, along with 33 upsells, including a large European bank.
Index Business Hits New Heights
Index revenue surged 17% to $196 million, driven by all-time high exchange-traded product (ETP) assets under management of $745 billion at quarter-end. The business attracted $88 billion in net inflows over the trailing twelve months, including $20 billion in the second quarter alone.
Nasdaq launched 33 new index products during the quarter, with 21 international offerings (12 developed in partnership with new index clients) and seven for the institutional insurance annuity space. The company also extended its exclusive licensing agreement with CME Group through 2039 for futures and options based on the Nasdaq-100 and other Nasdaq indexes.
Market Services Posts Record Performance
Market Services delivered record net revenue of $306 million, up 21% organically, driven by U.S. cash equities and derivatives revenue. Nasdaq’s exchanges also achieved record U.S. cash equities volumes during a quarter when the industry also set record volumes.
During the Russell reconstitution event, Nasdaq’s Closing Cross successfully executed 2.5 billion shares in just 0.871 seconds across Nasdaq-listed securities, representing a record $102.5 billion dollars in notional value. The company’s North American markets also handled unprecedented message traffic, processing a record of more than 560 billion messages in a single day.
Listing Leadership Extends to 46 Quarters
Nasdaq extended its listing leadership streak to 46 consecutive quarters, with its highest number of first half listings since 2021. The exchange welcomed 38 U.S. operating company IPOs that raised more than $3.5 billion in proceeds—achieving a 79% win rate.
Nasdaq also maintained momentum in its effort to encourage switches from other exchanges, attracting nearly $50 billion in market value during the quarter and over $270 billion year-to-date, with notable switches including Shopify, Thomson Reuters and Kimberly Clark.
Strong Financial Position Supports Growth Investments
“Nasdaq’s financial results highlight the resilience of our business model and its ability to achieve exceptional revenue and earnings growth with strong free cash flow generation,” said Sarah Youngwood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
The company generated $746 million in cash flow from operations, enabling continued progress on its deleveraging plan. Nasdaq returned $155 million to shareholders through dividends and repurchased $100 million in common stock, while also repaying $400 million of senior unsecured notes.
Notably, Nasdaq achieved its 3.3x gross leverage milestone 16 months ahead of plan, demonstrating its commitment to strengthening its balance sheet while investing for growth.
Executing on Strategic Priorities
Nasdaq continues to advance its 2025 strategic priorities: Integrate, Innovate, and Accelerate. The company has actioned approximately $130 million of its $140 million expanded net expense efficiency program, with completion expected by year-end.
On the innovation front, Nasdaq Verafin announced the launch of its Agentic AI workforce in July, a suite of digital workers that can reduce anti-money laundering alert review workload by more than 80%. Calypso demonstrated its ability to integrate on-chain capabilities for efficient digital asset collateral management, and Nasdaq became the exclusive distributor of Nasdaq Private Market’s Tape D API, which allows the delivery of real-time private market data and valuation insights to investors.
The One Nasdaq approach continued to accelerate cross-selling opportunities, with the company on track to surpass $100 million in run-rate revenue from cross-sells by the end of 2027. Cross-sells now represent over 15% of Financial Technology’s sales pipeline.
Looking Ahead
With strong momentum across all divisions and a clear strategic roadmap, Nasdaq is set to keep advancing its mission to champion inclusive growth and prosperity across the global economy.
“Looking ahead, we remain well-positioned to enhance value for our clients and shareholders by driving innovation and deepening our client relationships through our One Nasdaq approach,”said Adena Friedman, Nasdaq Chair and Ceo.d.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Information set forth in this communication contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Nasdaq cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to (i) projections relating to our future financial results, total shareholder returns, growth, dividend program, trading volumes, products and services, ability to transition to new business models, taxes and achievement of synergy targets, (ii) statements about the closing or implementation dates and benefits of certain acquisitions, divestitures and other strategic, restructuring, technology, de-leveraging and capital allocation initiatives, (iii) statements about our integrations of our recent acquisitions, (iv) statements relating to any litigation or regulatory or government investigation or action to which we are or could become a party, and (v) other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond Nasdaq’s control. These factors include, but are not limited to, Nasdaq’s ability to implement its strategic initiatives, economic, political and market conditions and fluctuations, geopolitical instability, government and industry regulation, interest rate risk, U.S. and global competition. Further information on these and other factors are detailed in Nasdaq’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on Nasdaq’s investor relations website at http://ir.nasdaq.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Nasdaq undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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