Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ) Up 6.1% — Time to Position for More Upside?
Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ) is rallying hard this Thursday, last trading at $102.00 on the NASDAQ, a $5.88 gain from the prior close of $96.12. That advance carries the stock through its 52-week high of $101.79, a level set on January 16, 2026, and puts shares into fresh 52-week-high territory. The move erases a ceiling that capped the stock for more than nine months, and it does so on the strength of a clean quarterly report rather than a drift higher with the tape.
Volume stands at roughly 2.11 million shares with the regular session still open, against a 90-day average of about 3.63 million. That puts turnover at roughly 58% of a typical full day, with hours of trading still ahead.
Why Nasdaq, Inc. Price is Moving Higher
Q3 results, released before Thursday's open, drove the rally. Adjusted diluted EPS came in at $1.04 against a $1.02 consensus, up 18% from $0.88 a year earlier. Net revenue reached $1.481 billion, above the $1.466 billion estimate and up 13% year over year, on total GAAP revenue of $2.393 billion. Profitability improved faster than the top line. GAAP diluted EPS rose 31% to $0.96, and GAAP operating margin widened to 49% from 45%. Expanding margins while growing double digits is exactly what investors want from an exchange operator repositioning itself as a technology company.
The mix behind the beat makes it more compelling. Solutions revenue climbed 17% to $1.172 billion, and index revenue jumped 39% to $286 million. Annualized recurring revenue hit a record $3.365 billion, up 12%. That recurring base is what separates Nasdaq from a pure trading-volume story. Management also updated its 2026 non-GAAP operating-expense outlook to $2.550 billion to $2.580 billion, declared a $0.31 quarterly dividend, and confirmed that its U.S. stock market is on track to begin 23/5 trading on December 6. That launch gives investors a concrete near-term milestone tied to the company's push toward round-the-clock markets.
This move belongs to Nasdaq itself. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.05% on the day. Payments heavyweights Visa Inc. (V) rose 1.57% and MasterCard Incorporated (MA) added 1.62%, while Morgan Stanley slipped 1.47%. NDAQ's 6.12% surge runs well ahead of all of them, and the gap is the earnings beat.
What is the Nasdaq, Inc. Rating - Should I Buy?
Weiss Ratings assigns NDAQ a B rating. Current recommendation is Buy. The rating reflects a business firing on its core fundamentals, with the third-quarter print adding fresh evidence for that case.
Nasdaq is rated Excellent on the Growth, Efficiency, and Solvency Indices. The Growth Index rating rests on 14.85% revenue growth, which is double-digit expansion for a company whose legacy exchange business is often treated as mature. Thursday's 17% gain in solutions revenue and 39% jump in index revenue show where that growth is coming from. The Excellent Efficiency Index rating is supported by a 35.03% profit margin and a 16.52% ROE. Both figures show how much of each revenue dollar Nasdaq keeps once its software and data franchises carry more of the load. The 49% GAAP operating margin in the latest quarter suggests that efficiency is still improving. The Solvency rating gives Nasdaq room to keep investing in products like 23/5 trading without straining the balance sheet.
Where the picture becomes more nuanced is in the market-facing dimensions. Nasdaq is rated Good on both the Total Return Index and the Volatility Index. The stock spent most of 2026 below its January high before today's earnings-driven breakout, which helps explain why total return is solid but not yet standout. A 6.12% single-session jump is a rewarding kind of move, yet swings of that size are part of why the Volatility Index is not rated higher. The Dividend Index is rated Fair. A 1.21% yield on a $0.31 quarterly payout is reliable but modest, since Nasdaq directs much of its cash toward growth. With a forward P/E of 28.02 on EPS of $3.43, investors are paying for that growth, and the latest results argue it is being delivered.
Within the Financials sector, Nasdaq sits alongside Visa Inc. (V, B), MasterCard Incorporated (MA, B), and The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW, B). It ranks a notch above BlackRock, Inc. (BLK, B-). That is strong company for a firm still widely seen as an exchange operator.
About Nasdaq, Inc.
Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ) is a Financials company headquartered in New York. Best known for operating The Nasdaq Stock Market, home to many of the world's largest technology companies, Nasdaq has evolved into a global technology provider serving capital markets and the broader financial system. It runs equity, options, and derivatives exchanges in the United States and Europe. It also licenses benchmarks such as the Nasdaq-100 Index, which underpins major exchange-traded products and generates fee income that scales with assets tracking its indexes.
Beyond trading, Nasdaq's Financial Technology business has become a central growth engine. Verafin provides anti-financial-crime software used by banks to detect fraud and money laundering. Calypso and AxiomSL, brought in through the Adenza acquisition, supply treasury, risk management, and regulatory reporting platforms to large financial institutions. The company's Capital Access Platforms segment adds data products, index services, and investor relations and governance tools, including the Boardvantage board-management platform, giving Nasdaq recurring revenue from listed companies and asset managers alike.
Nasdaq's advantage starts with its brand and listing franchise, which draws issuers and liquidity in a self-reinforcing cycle. Its exchange technology is also licensed to market operators around the world. The shift toward subscription software and data has made revenue more predictable and less tied to swings in trading volume, while initiatives such as extended-hours trading keep it positioned at the front of market-structure change.
Investor Outlook
Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ) carries a Weiss Rating of B (Buy), and Thursday's breakout to a new 52-week high is backed by accelerating recurring revenue and widening margins. Investors should watch the December 6 launch of 23/5 trading, whether annualized recurring revenue keeps growing at double-digit rates beyond the record $3.365 billion, and whether spending stays within the $2.550 billion to $2.580 billion operating-expense range. See full rankings of all B-rated Financials stocks inside the Weiss Stock Screener.
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