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Nasdaq (NDAQ - Free Report) is slated to report first-quarter 2021 results on Apr 27, before the opening bell. The company beat estimates in each of the four reported quarters of 2020.

Factors to Consider

Nasdaq’s first-quarter performance is likely to have benefited from its diversified product offerings and business model.

Information Service might have gained from growth in Index business and contributions from the investment data & analytics and market data businesses. Strategic acquisitions of eVestment, Cinnober, Quandl and Verafin is likely to get reflected in the to-be-reported quarter’s results.

Non-trading revenues are anticipated to have been aided by better performance of Market Technology, and continued strong growth of Index and Investment Data & Analytics businesses. Higher SaaS revenues are likely have driven Market Technology. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Investment Data & Analytics businesses revenues is pegged at $45.9 million, indicating an increase of 12% from the year-ago reported figure. The consensus estimate for Index revenues is pegged at $98 million, suggesting growth of 30.7% from the year-ago reported figure.

Market Technology and Information Services businesses provide the biggest growth opportunities. Revenues in this segment are likely to have been driven by organic growth and increase in Software-as-a-Service surveillance revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Marketing Technology revenues is pegged at $102 million, suggesting growth of 25.9% from the prior-year reported figure.

Information Services segment is expected to have benefited from index licensing and investment in analytics products, courtesy of investments in expanding capabilities in higher growth areas within Information Services. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Information Services segment revenues is pegged at $248 million, indicating 17.5% increase from the year-ago reported figure.

Nasdaq reported mixed volumes for the first quarter 2021. While U.S. equity options volume increased 57% year over year to 892 million contracts in the first quarter, European options and futures volume declined 22.9% year over year to 22.2 million contracts. Shares gained 1.8% in the last trading session.

Revenue capture per contract for U.S. equity options slumped 26.7%, while the same for European options and futures increased 10.3% in the first quarter.

Under its cash equities, Nasdaq’s U.S. matched equity volume in the first quarter grossed about 152.6 billion shares, up 20.3% from the prior-year quarter. European equity volume increased nearly 7% year over year to $323 billion.

Under fixed income commodities, U.S. Fixed income volumes traded were $2.5 trillion, up 20.7%. European fixed income volume increased 8.2% to 7.9 million contracts.

Total listings in the first quarter increased 13.7% to 4,757. Higher listing revenues coupled with increased demand for IR Intelligence, ESG Services and board portal offerings might have favored the Corporate Services segment.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Corporate Services segment revenues is pegged at $144 million, indicating 12.5% increase from the year-ago reported figure.

The consensus estimate for listing revenues is pegged at $88 million, suggesting growth of 17.3% from the year-ago reported figure

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings stands at $1.74, indicating 16% increase from the prior-year reported figure.

What Our Quantitative Model States

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Nasdaq this time around. This is because the stock needs to have the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). This is not the case as you can see below.

Earnings ESP: Nasdaq has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
 

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