Share count
579Mpeak FY2024
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NDAQ, Nasdaq Inc.
Capital Markets & Asset Management financial
Nasdaq is a leading technology platform that powers the world's economies.
We architect the infrastructure of the world's most modern markets, power the innovation economy, and build trust in the financial system.
We manage, operate and provide our products and services in three business segments: Capital Access Platforms, Financial Technology and Market Services. 2025 Highlights Nasdaq extended its listing leadership in 2025 and achieved its seventh consecutive year as the top U.S. exchange by proceeds raised.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$8.3B
+11.6% YoY · 8% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $8.3B 5-yr avg $6.8B
Net margin 23.0% 5-yr avg 18.5%
Revenue $2.1B +2.0% vs yr-ago qtr
Operating margin 30.7% yr-ago 26.1%
Net income $519M yr-ago $395M
Net margin 24.3% yr-ago 18.8%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Trading volume and the data franchise. What decides it: volumes across its markets, which spike when volatility does; the network economics of a deep liquidity pool rivals cannot easily replicate; and the recurring, high-margin market-data and listing fees layered on top. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Operating margin has held high for a exchange (median 24% across the record). It earns this on little capital, so return on equity has run near 13%, the leverage of a model that needs almost no plant to grow. A high return that does not fade can mark a moat, but whether the volumes and the data franchise hold their pricing is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →28% of revenue comes from outside the United States.
Revenue by geography, FY2025
- United States72%$5.9B
- International28%$2.3B
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $3.7B | $3.9B | $4.3B | $4.3B | $5.6B | $5.9B | $6.2B | $6.1B | $7.4B | $8.3B | $8.3B | RevenueRevenue |
| 22.6% | 25.1% | 24.0% | 23.9% | 21.9% | 24.5% | 25.1% | 26.0% | 24.3% | 28.2% | 29.4% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| 2.9% | 18.5% | 10.7% | 18.2% | 16.6% | 20.2% | 18.1% | 17.5% | 15.1% | 21.6% | 23.0% | Net marginNet mgn |
| $106M | $729M | $458M | $774M | $933M | $1.2B | $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.8B | $1.9B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 20% | 16% | 57% | 24% | 23% | 23% | 24% | 25% | 23% | 17% | 18% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $688M | $813M | $917M | $874M | $1.2B | $975M | $1.6B | $1.6B | $1.8B | $2.1B | $2.1B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 2% | 12% | 8% | 14% | 15% | 19% | 18% | 10% | 10% | 15% | 16% | Return on equityROE |
| −2% | 8% | 3% | 8% | 10% | 13% | 12% | 6% | 5% | 10% | 11% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $13.4B | $15.4B | $15.7B | $13.9B | $18.0B | $20.1B | $20.9B | $32.3B | $30.4B | $31.1B | $27.3B | Total assetsAssets |
| $648M | $612M | $813M | $623M | $2.7B | $393M | $502M | $453M | $592M | $604M | $769M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $5.4B | $5.9B | $5.4B | $5.6B | $6.4B | $6.4B | $6.2B | $10.8B | $11.2B | $12.2B | $12.0B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 506M | 509M | 503M | 501M | 501M | 505M | 498M | 508M | 579M | 579M | 572M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $7.31 | $7.76 | $8.50 | $8.50 | $11.23 | $11.65 | $12.51 | $11.93 | $12.78 | $14.28 | $14.52 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.21 | $1.43 | $0.91 | $1.55 | $1.86 | $2.35 | $2.26 | $2.08 | $1.93 | $3.09 | $3.34 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $1.36 | $1.60 | $1.82 | $1.74 | $2.30 | $1.93 | $3.22 | $3.11 | $3.13 | $3.65 | $3.72 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $0.39 | $0.48 | $0.56 | $0.61 | $0.64 | $0.69 | $0.77 | $0.87 | $0.93 | $1.04 | $1.08 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $10.72 | $11.56 | $10.83 | $11.26 | $12.85 | $12.66 | $12.35 | $21.27 | $19.32 | $21.13 | $21.05 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Share counts before 2020 are restated ×3 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +7.7%/yr | +4.9%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +11.6%/yr | +9.6%/yr |
| EPS | +34.9%/yr | +10.6%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +11.3%/yr | +10.2%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | +6.3%/yr | +4.1%/yr |
| Book value / share | +7.8%/yr | +10.5%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked. Share counts on the current split basis.
Revenue
$8.3Blow FY2016
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Is it a good business?
- Operating margin 28.2%Solid fee marginOperating income $2.3B ÷ revenue $8.3BIndustry peers: median 22%
What this means
The heart of a exchange: how much of each fee dollar survives the cost of running the business. Revenue is a toll on trading volume plus the recurring market-data and listing fees the venue generates, protected by the network economics of a deep liquidity pool that rivals cannot easily replicate. A high margin held for years, through a market it does not control, is the operational mark of a real franchise.
- Net margin 21.6%WideNet income $1.8B ÷ revenue $8.3B
What this means
What reaches the owner after tax and interest. For a capital-light fee business this should be a wide share of revenue; when it is thin despite a high operating margin, debt taken on for acquisitions is usually the reason, so read it next to the balance sheet.
- Return on equity 15%SolidNet income $1.8B ÷ equity $12.2BIndustry peers: median 11%
What this means
Because the business ties up little capital, a healthy fee stream throws off a high return on the equity behind it. Read it with the buyback record: returning capital lifts this ratio honestly, but heavy debt taken to do so can flatter it.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Moderate contestabilityAI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.
In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor
The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product; it frames AI mainly as a capability.
The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$4.4B
- Cash & short-term investments$769M
- Receivables$985M
- Other current assets$2.6B
Current liabilities$4.4B
- Debt due within a year$431M
- Accounts payable$245M
- Other current liabilities$3.7B
Current ratio1.00×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.00×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.18×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital($17M)the cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$431M due · $769M cash
covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+2.0%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters0.9× → 1.0×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($8.7B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($10.9B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$9.5B$560M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$1.2Bcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
Acquisitions & goodwill
from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow recordGoodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.
Goodwill & intangibles$20.9B67% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth
Cash spent acquiring$10.9Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $1.6B of capital spent building
None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.
Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Adena T. Friedman | $20.0M | $69.0M | $975M |
| 2022 | Adena T. Friedman | $28.0M | $25.9M | $1.6B |
| 2023 | Adena T. Friedman | $18.5M | $9.8M | $1.6B |
| 2024 | Adena T. Friedman | $21.5M | $51.1M | $1.8B |
| 2025 | Adena T. Friedman | $25.0M | $59.1M | $2.1B |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- CEO pay ratio246:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
- Stock-based compensation$165M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 2% of revenue, equal to 7% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Capital Markets & Asset Management
The same industry, side by side on fee margins. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Op. margin | Net margin | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LPLALPL Financial Holdings Inc. | $17.0B | 11.0% | 8.3% | 36% |
| ICEIntercontinental Exchange Inc. | $12.6B | 37.7% | 25.8% | 11% |
| BENFranklin Resources Inc. | $8.8B | 21.8% | 15.0% | 10% |
| NDAQNasdaq Inc. | $8.3B | 24.4% | 17.8% | 13% |
| CMECME Group Inc. | $6.5B | 60.9% | 54.9% | 10% |
| CBOECboe Global Markets Inc. | $4.7B | 22.4% | 16.7% | 14% |
| BGCBGC Group Inc. | $2.4B | 10.3% | 5.3% | 11% |
| TWTradeweb Markets Inc. | $2.1B | 34.0% | 23.5% | 6% |
| Group median | — | 23.4% | 17.2% | 11% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Nasdaq Inc. has delivered.
Nasdaq Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
$
Through the cycle, Nasdaq Inc. earns about $1.7B on its 21.0% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 25.5% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.
Base
—
The assumptions
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+11%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+11%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+11%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—
P/B—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner-earnings yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Free cash flow $2.0B on 566M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-16; net debt $8.2B. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($277M) runs well above depreciation ($154M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $2.1B, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Nasdaq Inc. (NDAQ), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/NDAQ, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← NCNO its page in the Manual NDSN →
Industry order: ← NCTY the Capital Markets & Asset Management chapter NMR →