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.
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
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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
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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.