Nasdaq grew Q2 2026 net revenue 14.9% to $1.50B as index licensing jumped 38% and trading hit records, while 16% FinTech ARR growth marked the steadier engine; GAAP EPS rose 14.5% to $0.89.
Revenue
$1.5B
+14.9% YoY
Net income
$507M
+12.2% YoY
Diluted EPS
$0.89
+14.5% YoY
Operating margin
47.5%
Headline: record trading and a $1 trillion index franchise lift net revenue 15%, while costs grow 7%
Nasdaq, Inc., the company that runs the Nasdaq stock exchange and sells software to banks and brokers, reported second-quarter 2026 net revenue of $1.50 billion, up 14.9% from $1.31 billion a year earlier. All three divisions grew by double digits. GAAP operating expenses rose only 6.9%, so operating income rose 25.2% to $712 million. GAAP diluted EPS rose 14.5% to $0.89. Net income grew more slowly than operating income for two reasons that don't repeat: Q2 2025 had a lower tax rate and a $39 million gain from selling businesses.
The biggest single driver was the Index business, which licenses indexes such as the Nasdaq-100 to exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Its revenue jumped 38% to $271 million. Assets in ETFs that track Nasdaq indexes ended the quarter at $1.114 trillion, up from $745 billion a year earlier.
Key figures
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Net revenue (revenue less transaction-based expenses)
Operating margin is calculated on net revenue, as Nasdaq does: $712M / $1,500M. The 14.5% EPS growth is the filing's own figure, calculated before rounding (the rounded $0.89 vs. $0.78 works out to 14.1%). ARR is the annual value of active subscription contracts. It is a company-defined metric, not a GAAP figure.
Why "net revenue" and not total revenue
Total revenue was $2.53 billion, up 20.5%. That figure overstates growth. Much of the gap comes from pass-through money that Nasdaq collects and pays straight out again. The main pieces are:
Rebates paid to trading firms for sending orders to Nasdaq's exchanges: $712M, up from $640M.
Section 31 fees, a regulatory fee that the SEC charges exchanges and that exchanges pass on to customers. This is the main reason "brokerage, clearance and exchange fees" roughly doubled to $320M from $155M. The 10-Q attributes the Section 31 increase "primarily" to "a higher average SEC fee rate." It adds that because the same amount is booked as revenue and as expense, "there is no impact on our net revenues."
Net revenue removes these items, so it is the right figure for judging the business.
Segment performance
Segment
Q2 2026 revenue
Q2 2025
Reported change
Organic / adjusted change
Capital Access Platforms
$621M
$520M
+19%
+18% adjusted
Financial Technology
$539M
$464M
+16%
+15% organic
Market Services (net)
$340M
$306M
+11%
+11% organic
Other (divested Solovis)
$0M
$16M
n/m
—
"Organic" removes currency moves, acquisitions and divestitures. Nasdaq's "adjusted" figure also removes a one-time $6M Index benefit (explained below).
Capital Access Platforms (listings, data, index licensing, investor analytics)
Index: $271M, up 38% (35% excluding the one-off). The 10-Q gives three reasons: "higher average AUM in exchange traded products linked to Nasdaq indices, higher volume based revenues and a $6 million one-time revenue benefit, due to a contract modification." Average ETP assets were $1.014 trillion, up from $663 billion. Most of the growth came from markets rising, not from new money. Over the trailing twelve months, rising prices added $260 billion to period-end assets, while net new investment added $109 billion. That split matters: index fees are charged on asset levels, so a market sell-off would reduce this revenue even if investors kept buying the funds.
Data & Listing Services: $217M, up 10%. The drivers were new data sales, pricing and usage, plus higher listing fees from new listings. The quarter included SpaceX, which the company calls the largest IPO in exchange history, with an $86 billion raise. Nasdaq operating-company IPOs fell to 26 from 38. However, the 10-Q says total proceeds raised set a quarterly record of more than $105 billion. Fewer but much larger deals is a better mix for fees tied to company size.
Workflow & Insights: $133M, up 5%. Growth came from analytics (eVestment and Nasdaq Data Link). This is the slowest-growing part of the segment. Segment ARR rose only 8% to $1,388M, well below the 19% revenue growth. That tells you much of this quarter's segment growth came from market-linked revenue, not contracted subscriptions.
Financial Technology (software for banks, brokers and regulators)
This segment is the core of Nasdaq's argument that it is now mainly a software company. All three sub-units grew by double digits for a second straight quarter:
Financial Crime Management Technology (Verafin anti-fraud and anti-money-laundering software): $98M, up 22%. The 10-Q credits "higher subscription revenues from new and existing clients and higher professional services fees." ARR rose to $359M from $308M.
Regulatory Technology (AxiomSL regulatory reporting and trade surveillance): $120M, up 15% (13% organic). The 10-Q points to subscription growth "primarily driven by price increases, revenue from new clients and the favorable impact from changes in foreign currency rates." Price increases come first in that list, which suggests pricing drove more of the growth than new customers. ARR rose 14% to $428M.
Capital Markets Technology (Calypso trading and risk software, exchange technology, data-center services): $321M, up 15% (14% organic). The 10-Q cites "data center expansion, including a change in pricing structure, higher Calypso upfront license revenues and increased subscription revenues," partly offset by lower professional services. Upfront license revenue is recognized when a deal is signed, so it swings from quarter to quarter. ARR, which excludes it, rose 16% to $1,083M.
Segment ARR grew 16%, in line with revenue. That supports reading the software growth as recurring rather than front-loaded.
Market Services (trading)
Net trading revenue reached a record $340M, up 11%:
Cash equity trading (net): $160M, up 18.7%, the fastest-growing trading line. Industry share volume rose to 20.2 billion shares a day from 18.4 billion. Nasdaq's matched market share also rose, to 14.7% from 13.9% in the U.S. and to 74.5% from 71.9% in the Nordics.
U.S. equity options (net): $123M, up 8.2%. Industry volume grew much faster: average daily contracts rose 27% to 66.5 million. The 10-Q explains the gap as higher volumes "partially offset by lower capture." Capture is the net fee Nasdaq keeps per contract, and it fell. Nasdaq's combined options market share also slipped to 29.1% from 29.4%. Options revenue therefore grew less than a third as fast as industry volume.
U.S. Tape plans: $33M, down 10.7%. Tape plans are shared market-data revenue. The prior-year quarter included an industry-wide audit adjustment.
Costs, below-the-line items and capital return
Operating expenses of $788M, up 6.9%. Compensation rose $31M on "increased headcount and higher incentive compensation"; headcount was 9,630, up from 9,492. Marketing nearly doubled to $24M "due to a strengthening IPO environment." Technology spending rose to $88M because of cloud and software licensing. Merger and strategic-initiative costs fell to $5M from $20M, which helped the GAAP comparison. Non-GAAP expenses, which exclude acquisition amortization and one-off charges, rose 10%.
Tax rate: 22.4%, up from 17.5%. The 10-Q says Q2 2025 benefited from "a tax benefit related to payments made to former Adenza employees in June 2025." This is the main reason GAAP net income grew 12% while operating income grew 25%. Q2 2025 also included a $39M divestiture gain that did not recur.
Interest expense fell to $86M from $95M, reflecting "lower outstanding debt following the repayment of our 2025 Notes and the partial repurchases" of other notes.
Shareholder returns: $174M of dividends (quarterly dividend $0.31, up from $0.27) and $356M of buybacks. Nasdaq also repaid a net $162M of debt. Diluted share count fell 1.9% to 567.8 million, which added to EPS growth. Cash flow from operations was $711M, and $2.5 billion of buyback authorization remains.
Takeaway: The standout number, 38% Index growth, depends mostly on market prices. Of the $369 billion increase in index-tracking ETP assets over the past year, $260 billion came from rising markets. The more durable story is Financial Technology: revenue grew 16% and ARR grew 16%, so the contracted base is keeping pace with reported sales. That is the part of this quarter most likely to carry into a weaker market.
Outlook
Management guidance (non-GAAP, updated with Q2 results):
2026 non-GAAP operating expenses of $2.530–$2.570 billion.
2026 non-GAAP tax rate of 22.5%–24.5%, unchanged.
Nasdaq does not give revenue guidance. First-half non-GAAP expenses were $1,250M. The full-year range therefore implies $1,280–$1,320M in the second half, or about $640–$660M a quarter, close to Q2's $641M. That suggests cost growth stays controlled while revenue continues to benefit from high volumes.
Our read on the trajectory:
Market-linked revenue could reverse. Index revenue, cash trading and options volumes all benefited from record activity and rising equity prices in Q2. Rates like these are unlikely to hold through a market correction. Index revenue is especially exposed because it moves with asset values.
Watch options capture and market share. The industry added 27% more volume, but Nasdaq's options revenue grew only 8%. If capture and share keep slipping, Nasdaq will not fully benefit from high volumes.
Software is the steadier engine. FinTech ARR of $1.87 billion growing 16%, plus the new-client, cross-sell and upsell counts in the release (58 new clients, 7 cross-sells, 107 upsells), point to continued double-digit growth. Regulatory Technology is leaning on price increases, and that lever has limits.
Portfolio changes continue. Early in Q3, Nasdaq agreed to sell Nasdaq Fund Secondaries to Nasdaq Private Market and to buy Dasseti, a due-diligence platform to be folded into eVestment. It also said SK hynix listed ADRs on Nasdaq in Q3. Nasdaq calls it the largest ADR listing in U.S. capital markets history. Neither transaction had closed as of the release.
The next report, Q3 2026 results, is likely around late October, based on Nasdaq's usual timing (Q2 was reported on July 23).