Nasdaq has announced the financial results for the second quarter of 2020, showing a net revenue of $699 million – a jump of 12 percent compared to the $623 million it reported the previous year for the same quarter.
The index provider highlighted that it witnesed a 22 percent of the year-on-year (YoY) growth in its market services revenue that was fueled by the record trading volume in the US equities and options market, along with a $25 million positive impact from organic growth in the non-trading segments – a YoY uptick of 7 percent.
“Our foundational markets are demonstrating their resilience and the power of a distributed, electronic market model, handling record volumes through multiple periods of extreme volatility,” Adena Friedman, president and CEO of Nasdaq, said in the official statement.
“While we continue to see some short-term uncertainties in the business climate due to the pandemic’s impact on the economy, we remain steadfast in our conviction and our investment in our longer-term strategy to create a more inclusive, global economy through advanced capital markets technology and expert market knowledge and insights.”
Record market volumes resulted in impressive numbers
The quarterly report also detailed that the GAAP operating expense touched $384 million for the quarter with an operating margin of 45 percent, up from 41 percent in the previous year.
This indicates higher compensation expense and higher restructuring charges, partially offset by lower general, administrative and other costs and decreased marketing and advertising expense due to lower event costs, according to Nasdaq.
Non-GAAP operating expenses also increased by 2 percent touching $327 million in the last quarter.
The net income of the company on GAAP basis was $241 million, or diluted EPS of $1.45, in Q2 2020, and for non-GAAP, it was $256 million, or $1.54 per diluted share – an increase of 38.5 percent and 26.1 percent in the categories respectively.
“During the second quarter of 2020, we further enhanced the strength of our balance sheet through our successful, 30-year $500 million bond offering,” Michael Ptasznik, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Nasdaq, added.
“We used the proceeds from this offering as well as the temporary cash buffer we established in the first quarter of 2020 to repay all of our commercial paper and the short-term borrowings on our revolver, thereby ending the period with lower leverage but increased available liquidity.”
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