Nasdaq Q2 Revenue Jumps 21%, Initiates $475M Share Buyback Program

Nasdaq, Inc. (Nasdaq: NDAQ)published on Wednesday its financial results for the second quarter of 2021, between April and June, showing a 21 percent year-over-year gain in its net revenue. In absolute terms, this figure came in at $846 million.

The company further detailed that it generated $104 million or 15 percent of its revenue from organic growth, while $27 million was added from the inclusion of revenues from Verafin, which Nasdaq acquired in Q1. The company also gained another $16 million from favorable changes in FX rates.

Though Nasdaq is known for operating one of the United States’ largest stock exchanges, it has massive operations in other areas of financial services as well. The announcement elaborated that the firm’s solutions segment fetched $534 million in revenue in the period, while the market services brought in $312 million.

The US company also detailed that its annualized recurring revenue went up by 22 percent year-over-year to touch $1.8 billion in Q2.

Commenting on the numbers, Nasdaq President and CEO, Adena Friedman, said: “Our performance in new listings and trading, as well as our focus growing areas like anti-financial crime and buyside workflow solutions sustained year over year revenue growth across all of our businesses.”

With the increase in business, the GAAP diluted earnings per share jumped by 41 percent to $2.05 from $1.45 in the same quarter a year before. The non-GAAP earnings stood at $1.9 per share, 23 percent higher than last year.

Share Buyback Is in Full Swing

Nasdaq repurchased $248 million worth of its common stocks in the second quarter and spent a total of $410 million for the program since the beginning of 2021. Now, the company is further expanding its share buyback program.

The American company now has plans to repurchase an additional $475 million of shares by the end of this year under an accelerated share repurchase (ASR) agreement.

Most recently, the company announced that it is spinning out the Nasdaq Private Market to form a separate joint venture with several big banks, including Citi and Goldman Sachs.