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Nasdaq NDAQ reported first-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share of 79 cents, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2%. The bottom line improved 25.4% year over year. (Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.).
Shares gained 1.3% in the pre-market trading session to reflect the outperformance.
The year-over-year improvement was mainly driven by higher revenues across divisions and organic growth, partially offset by higher expenses.
Performance in Detail
Nasdaq’s net revenues of $1.2 billion increased 12.5% year over year. The top line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.1%.
Nasdaq, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Nasdaq, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Nasdaq, Inc. Quote
Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) increased 8% year over year to $2.8 billion. Organic growth was 9%.
Annualized SaaS revenues increased 14% and represented 37% of ARR.
Capital Access Platforms' revenues, adjusted, were $479 million, up 11%. The increase was primarily driven by higher revenues from all business lines. Our estimate was $532.4 million.
Financial Technology revenues, adjusted, were $395 million, up 10%, also driven by higher revenues from all business lines. Our estimate was $421.6 million.
Revenues at the Solutions business increased 11% year over year to $947 million, reflecting strong growth from Index and Financial Technology.
Market Services net revenues increased 19% year over year to $281 million. Our estimate was $251 million.
Adjusted operating expenses were $555 million, up 5.9% from the year-ago period or 7% on an organic basis. The organic increase reflected higher investments in technology and people to drive innovation and long-term growth, partially offset by the benefit of synergies. Our estimate for operating expenses was $572 million.
Adjusted operating income of $682 million increased 15% year over year. Our estimate was $641 million.
The company’s operating margin of 55% expanded 200 basis points year over year.
The Nasdaq stock market welcomed 170 new company listings, including 63 initial public offerings. The number of listed companies was 4,139 at quarter end.
Financial Update
Nasdaq had cash and cash equivalents of $708 million as of March 31, 2025, which increased 17% from the end of 2024.
Long-term debt was $8.9 billion as of March 31, 2025, which decreased 1.7% from the end of 2024.
Nasdaq generated $663 million in cash flow from operations in the reported quarter.
Capital Deployment
Nasdaq returned $138 million to shareholders in the first quarter of 2025 through dividends and $115 million through repurchases of common stock. Nasdaq also repurchased $279 million of senior unsecured notes in the quarter.
The board of directors approved a dividend of 27 cents per share, an increase of 13%. The dividend will be paid out on June 27, 2025, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 13, 2025.
As of March 31, 2025, $1.6 billion remained under the board-authorized share repurchase program.