Debt is smaller than equity and it can meet short-term obligations.
Metrics · D/E ~78% · Current Ratio 1.01
💲Is the price expensive now?
Not cheap (fair to slightly pricey)
Because it is a good, popular company, those expectations are already priced in.
Metrics · P/E 26.9 · P/B 4.3
💡The group behind the Nasdaq exchange: 48.2% operating margin (net basis), 16.5% ROE. Adenza filled equity with goodwill, so tangible equity is deeply negative.
Compiled from public financial data. Not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. · Source: stockanalysis (margins, ROE, P/B are TTM, net-revenue basis) · P/E on the July 24 close · tangible equity per EDGAR, as of 2026-07-24
Business Summary · Key Value Metrics
The exchange group that operates the Nasdaq Stock Market. It runs three legs: equity and options trading and listings; Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) index licensing and market data; and regulatory and risk software for banks. About 80% of revenue is recurring. TTM revenue $5.61B (net basis), operating margin 48.2%, ROE 16.5%.
Current Price
$92.09
+1.85%+$1.67· Close 2026-07-24
Analyst Consensus Target (external reference)
$110.07
Avg. of 17 external analysts · stockanalysis (17-analyst consensus, Buy · high $135 / low $84)
P/E (TTM)
26.9x
TTM · 10-yr median
Operating margin
48.2%
TTM · net-revenue basis
ROE
16.5%
TTM
Net margin
35.0%
TTM · net-revenue basis
Dividend yield
1.37%
quarterly dividend
Market cap
$51.5B
as of 2026-07-24
Economic Moat · Key Business Segments
Nasdaq's moat is its regulated exchange license and listing network effect. Companies listed on Nasdaq and their liquidity attract each other, while Nasdaq-100 index licensing (the QQQ ecosystem) and market-data subscriptions produce high-margin recurring revenue independent of volume. The 2023 Adenza acquisition added mission-critical regulatory-reporting and capital-markets risk software for banks. Notably, the trading segment benefits when markets crash and volume spikes — a counter-cyclical trait (Source: company IR, stockanalysis).
Exchange license, listing network
A regulated exchange plus listed companies that pull in liquidity — a network effect.
Counter-cyclical hedge
When markets crash, trading volume spikes and fee revenue rises, defending results.
Index and data subscriptions
Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) and market data are high-margin recurring revenue, volume-independent.
Adenza regulatory software
Mission-critical bank regulatory-reporting and risk software — high-switching-cost subscriptions.
10-Year Financial Trends
Gross revenue compounded at a 9-year CAGR of +9.3% ($3.7B in 2016 to $8.3B in 2025), with operating income rising steadily. But two GAAP net-income years are distorted: 2016 ($106M) collapsed on a $578M eSpeed trademark write-down, and 2018 ($458M) on $606M of TCJA tax (57% rate) — those years P/E is meaningless. EPS is standardized for the 2022 3:1 split. The 2023 Adenza $10.5B deal spiked goodwill and debt. Q2 2026: gross revenue $2.53B, diluted EPS $0.89.
10-Year Growth
Revenue$8.3B · CAGR +9.3%
Operating Income$2.3B · CAGR +12.0%
EPS$3.09 · CAGR +34.8%
10-Year Valuation
P/E (year-end)31.4x · avg 27.9x
ROE14.6% · avg 12.2%
Operating Margin28.2% · avg 24.6%
📊 Annual Data Table (NDAQ) — expand/collapse
Year
Revenue (B$)
Op. Income (B$)
EPS ($)
P/E (x)
ROE (%)
Op. Margin (%)
2016
3.7
0.84
0.21
—
2
22.6
2017
3.95
0.99
1.43
17.9
12.4
25.1
2018
4.28
1.03
0.91
29.9
8.4
24
2019
4.26
1.02
1.54
23.1
13.7
23.9
2020
5.63
1.23
1.86
23.8
14.5
21.9
2021
5.89
1.44
2.35
29.8
18.6
24.5
2022
6.23
1.56
2.26
27.2
18.3
25.1
2023
6.06
1.58
2.08
27.9
9.8
26
2024
7.4
1.8
1.93
40.1
10
24.3
2025
8.26
2.33
3.09
31.4
14.6
28.2
— = no data for that year/metric (P/E omitted before EPS turned positive)
9-Year CAGR: Revenue +9.3% (gross) · Operating Income +12.0% · Net Income +37.3% (2016 write-down) · EPS +34.7% (2016 distorted)
Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K (gross revenue, operating income, net income, diluted EPS, equity, goodwill, tax); fiscal year-end closes from Yahoo Finance; cross-checked against stockanalysis. EPS is standardized for the 2022 3:1 split, and P/E is year-end close ÷ diluted EPS, matching stockanalysis for 2021-2025. 2016 (eSpeed trademark write-down) and 2018 (TCJA tax) distort net income, so those years' P/E is meaningless. Note: revenue is gross; the tiles' 48.2% operating and 35.0% net margins are on the net-revenue basis (after transaction costs).
Mega-Cap Value Metric Comparison
NDAQ trades at 26.9x, a premium to exchange peers ICE (21.2) and CME (21.7). Its net-revenue operating margin of 48.2% trails CME (65.7%) and ICE (52.1%) because Nasdaq also runs labor-heavier fintech and regulatory software. In exchange, it has data/regtech growth legs plus Adenza integration and de-leveraging underway (Source: stockanalysis, company IR).
Equity quality (goodwill impairment risk)— Serial M&A (OMX, eSpeed, ISE, Verafin, Adenza) leaves goodwill plus intangibles ($20.9B) far above equity ($12.2B), with tangible equity around -$8.7B. Nasdaq has already written down the eSpeed trademark ($578M) in 2016, so a large impairment if Adenza underperforms is a real tail risk.Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K
●
Adenza acquisition debt— The 2023 Adenza $10.5B deal raised net debt to about $8.8B. That said, the company hit its leverage target (~3.3x) ahead of plan and S&P upgraded it to BBB+, with de-leveraging underway.Source: company IR, S&P
●
One-off years and near-high price— 2016 and 2018 GAAP net income are one-off-distorted and should be excluded from the series. At -10% below its 52-week high, the stock is not cheap now — it's a crash-buy watch item, not a buy today.Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K, stockanalysis
✦ ValueCrab Dashboard PreviewNDAQ $92.09 +1.85% · as of 2026-07-24
Q. What are the key value metrics for Nasdaq (NDAQ)?P/E (TTM) 26.9, operating margin 48.2% (net-revenue basis), ROE 16.5%, debt-to-equity 0.78x, dividend yield 1.37%, and a 9-year gross-revenue CAGR of +9.3% (Source: stockanalysis, SEC EDGAR, as of 2026-07-24).
Q. Why is an exchange a crash-buy candidate?Nasdaq's trading segment is counter-cyclical: when markets crash, volume spikes and fee revenue actually rises. On top of that, index (QQQ), market-data, and regulatory-software subscriptions are 80% of revenue and stable. It's one of the few names structurally strong in a market crash — a good fit for the watchlist idea.
Q. Why does the operating margin differ between sources?Nasdaq presents revenue two ways. On gross revenue the operating margin is around 28%; net of the costs directly tied to trading, it reads 48%. This report uses gross for the time series and net for the tiles and peer comparison.
Q. Is negative tangible equity dangerous?Serial M&A left goodwill and intangibles well above equity, so tangible equity is about -$8.7B. Exchange and data businesses are intangible-heavy, so that alone isn't distress. But Nasdaq wrote down the eSpeed trademark before, so weak acquired assets like Adenza could cut earnings via a goodwill impairment.