Nasdaq (NDAQ)
Forward P/E is 23.02x against a peer median of 26.43x, a ratio of 0.87x — below the fair range — with trailing P/E 28.77x and PEG 1.26. Latest-quarter revenue grew 22.2% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), more than double the cluster median, so the value-trap check does not apply: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the cluster median growth is positive. Delivered demand check: the Financial exchanges, data & ratings group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 10.7% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising.
What would change this label: The fair band is 23.79x to 30.39x (0.90x to 1.15x the peer median of 26.43x). Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E rises to 23.79x or above at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth falls below 10.7% year over year, the cluster median, with PEG rising above 1.5. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above 30.39x without a matching upgrade to growth, or if revenue growth turns negative while the multiple stays above 23.79x.
Nasdaq runs stock exchanges and sells market data and trading technology, and the shares trade at about 23 times next year's expected earnings, below similar companies at about 26 times. Sales grew 22.2% in the latest quarter, much faster than its group. Cheaper than its peers while growing faster makes the shares look undervalued.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Nasdaq returned +132.22% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Nasdaq: -33.4% (2021-11-05 to 2023-10-03). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 23.02x against a peer median of 26.43x, a ratio of 0.87x — below the fair range — with trailing P/E 28.77x and PEG 1.26. Latest-quarter revenue grew 22.2% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), more than double the cluster median, so the value-trap check does not apply: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the cluster median growth is positive. Delivered demand check: the Financial exchanges, data & ratings group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 10.7% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 23.0× against a peer median of 26.4×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Financial exchanges, data & ratings group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 10.7% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +22.2% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasdaq (NDAQ) | $105.30 | 23.0× | 28.8× |
| MSCI | $605.62 | 27.9× | 32.1× |
| COIN | $157.99 | 105.7× | — |
| MCO | $476.73 | 26.4× | 29.1× |
| CBOE | $321.04 | 22.4× | 25.0× |
| ICE | $154.97 | 18.6× | 21.9× |
| Peer median | 26.4× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Sep 2026 2026-09-30 | $2.4B | 61.9% | $540M | 0.96 | $459M |
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $2.5B | 59.2% | $507M | 0.89 | $634M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $2.1B | 65.8% | $519M | 0.91 | $629M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $2.1B | 65.5% | $518M | — | $536M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $2.0B | 67.2% | $423M | 0.73 | $152M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $2.1B | 62.5% | $452M | 0.78 | $687M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $2.1B | 59.2% | $395M | 0.68 | $614M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $2.0B | 60.4% | $355M | — | $645M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $1.9B | 60.2% | $306M | 0.53 | $188M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $1.8B | 64.7% | $222M | 0.38 | $408M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $1.7B | 66.7% | $234M | 0.40 | $491M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $1.6B | 67.8% | $197M | — | $375M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 25-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | NASDAQ, INC. |
| Chief executive | Adena Friedman (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasdaq,_Inc.) |
| Sector | Financials — Financial Exchanges & Data — operates stock exchanges and provides market data and trading technology |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $105.30 |
| Market value (market cap) | $57.9B — share price times shares outstanding of 554,962,751 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $9.2B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $2.1B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $2.3B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Sep 2026 (of 25 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +132.22% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -33.4% (2021-11-05 to 2023-10-03) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Implied revenue (market cap $58.44B / PS 10.02 = $5.83B) differs -36.5% from data pack TTM revenue $9.186B; StockAnalysis uses net revenue ($5.78B) vs pack gross revenue
- The secondary source's P/S uses Nasdaq's NET revenue ($5.78B) while the data pack carries the EDGAR-tagged gross "Revenues" ($9.19B TTM) — this is a definitional difference in the revenue denominator, not a disagreement about the business.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001120193.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001120193.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/NDAQ/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.