Nasdaq beats profit estimates on strong demand for investment products

NASDAQ on Wednesday (Oct 18) reported third-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates, helped by stronger demand for its indexes and anti-financial-crime products.

The company has been expanding beyond market-sensitive businesses like trading to become a full-scale data and analytics provider. The diversification has helped it offset a prolonged slump in the initial public offering (IPO) market.

Index revenues at Nasdaq grew 15 per cent, while revenue from its anti-financial-crime unit, which offers solutions for detecting financial fraud, jumped 21 per cent.

That helped the company post an adjusted profit of 71 cents per share, while analysts on an average had expected 68 cents per share, according to LSEG IBES data.

Listings at Nasdaq are yet to gather pace despite the IPO market beginning to show “green shoots”, underscoring risks to recovery even as hopes of a soft landing grow.

A total of 87 companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the quarter, compared to 98 a year earlier.

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Softbank-backed Arm and grocery delivery app Instacart were among the big names that debuted on the Nasdaq during the quarter, aiming for rich valuations.

“We experienced some improvement in the IPO environment by welcoming marquee IPOs,” Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said in a statement. REUTERS