Nasdaq Q3 Revenue Jumps 13% as Annual Recurring Revenue Reaches $3.4 Billion

Nasdaq reported a 13% increase in third-quarter net revenue to $1.481 billion and said annualized recurring revenue reached a record $3.365 billion, or approximately $3.4 billion. Higher index revenue and demand for financial technology contributed to the results for the three months ended September 30, 2026.

The company’s solutions business generated $1.172 billion of revenue, up 17% from a year earlier, compared with 2% growth in net revenue from its Market Services division. Annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, increased 12% on a reported basis and 14% on an organic basis, making contracted subscription activity a prominent part of the quarter’s performance.

Profit also grew faster than sales. Nasdaq recorded diluted earnings of $0.96 a share under U.S. accounting rules, up from $0.73 a year earlier, and adjusted earnings of $1.04 a share. Its October 22 earnings release set out the latest results alongside an updated full-year expense outlook.

What the $3.4 Billion Recurring-Revenue Figure Measures

ARR is not the amount Nasdaq earned during the quarter. It is the annualized value of active subscription contracts with defined prices at a particular point in time, which helps show the scale of revenue the business has contracted to provide on a recurring basis. Nasdaq excludes one-time arrangements and contracts whose value varies with specified metrics from this measure.

Financial Technology accounted for $1.954 billion of ARR at the end of September, compared with $1.662 billion a year earlier. Capital Access Platforms contributed another $1.411 billion, up from $1.303 billion. Together those businesses explain the $3.365 billion total, but their growth rates differed: Financial Technology ARR expanded 18%, against 8% for Capital Access Platforms.

Annualized software-as-a-service revenue increased 12% on a reported basis and represented 38% of total ARR. Organic SaaS growth was 16%. Nasdaq attributed the two-percentage-point gap between reported and organic ARR growth to the treatment of divestitures in the year-over-year comparison.

The distinction matters because an annualized contract value does not guarantee the same amount of recognized revenue over the next 12 months. Customers can renew or end contracts, and subscription billings do not necessarily follow the timing of accounting revenue. Nasdaq cautions that ARR is not a forecast or a standardized accounting measure, so comparing it directly with another company’s similarly named metric can be misleading.

Index Inflows and Financial Technology Drive Sales

Capital Access Platforms, which includes index, listing and data products, recorded $641 million in quarterly revenue, up 20% from $534 million a year earlier. Index revenue was the standout component, advancing 39% to $286 million from $206 million. Data and Listing Services brought in $224 million, compared with $204 million in the prior-year quarter, while Workflow and Insights revenue reached $131 million from $124 million.

Nasdaq reported $49 billion of net inflows during the quarter into exchange-traded products tracking its indexes. Over the preceding 12 months, those net inflows totaled $141 billion. Assets in such products stood at $1.160 trillion at the end of September, compared with $829 billion a year earlier; these are assets in products linked to Nasdaq indexes, not funds managed or owned by Nasdaq itself.

The index figures help explain why the growth story is not solely about new stock listings or heavier trading. Nasdaq earns revenue from licensing indexes used by investment products, and the expanding base of products tracking its benchmarks supports that business. It said 32 new index products launched during the quarter, half of them outside the United States, though launches and asset flows should not be confused with immediate revenue recognition.

Financial Technology generated $529 million of revenue, up 16% from $457 million. Its Capital Markets Technology unit accounted for $303 million, compared with $264 million a year earlier. Regulatory Technology brought in $123 million, versus $109 million, and Financial Crime Management Technology produced $103 million, up from $84 million. Those businesses supply technology to financial institutions, making the segment distinct from trading activity on Nasdaq-operated exchanges.

In the quarter, Financial Technology signed 54 new clients and recorded 135 upsells to existing clients, according to Nasdaq. Cloud-based products represented 85% of the segment’s annual contract value bookings. Within its Verafin financial-crime business, the company signed 45 small and midsize bank clients and three enterprise agreements, illustrating new client activity alongside expansions of existing relationships.

The trading division provided a different picture. Market Services produced $309 million in net revenue, only slightly above the $303 million reported a year earlier, even though its gross revenue reached $1.221 billion. Nasdaq subtracts rebates and other trading-related charges from gross trading revenue when reporting net revenue. That accounting distinction is important to the headline 13% figure, which refers to revenue after those expenses, not the $2.393 billion of consolidated gross revenue.

Higher Earnings, Updated Costs and Cash Returns

Operating income under generally accepted accounting principles climbed 25% to $732 million. Net income attributable to Nasdaq rose to $540 million from $423 million, helping diluted earnings per share increase 31%. Adjusted diluted earnings rose 18% to $1.04, giving a second view of profit that excludes specified items rather than following the same calculation as reported earnings.

Profitability improved, although the size of that improvement depends on the measure. Nasdaq’s GAAP operating margin was 49%, up from 45% a year earlier. Its non-GAAP operating margin advanced one percentage point to 57%, and adjusted operating income rose 15% to $843 million. The narrower change in adjusted margin is useful context for the larger gain in reported operating income.

GAAP operating expenses increased 3% to $749 million, whereas non-GAAP expenses grew 9% to $638 million. Management cited compensation costs and technology investment among the pressures on spending. The reported expense line also benefited from lower general and administrative costs, partly attributable to a favorable legal settlement, making the GAAP and adjusted comparisons meaningfully different.

For the full year, Nasdaq updated its forecast for non-GAAP operating expenses to between $2.550 billion and $2.580 billion. It kept its expected non-GAAP tax rate at 22.5% to 24.5%. Those figures are management guidance, not completed results, and the company did not provide equivalent GAAP expense and tax-rate forecasts because certain adjustments cannot be reliably quantified in advance.

Operating activities generated $521 million in cash during the quarter. Nasdaq repurchased $323 million of common stock and paid $173 million in dividends, returning a combined $496 million to shareholders. As of September 30, it had $2.2 billion remaining under its authorized share-repurchase program, leaving room for future buybacks without making their timing or amount certain.

Outside its software business, Nasdaq is preparing to extend trading hours for U.S.-listed shares. The company says its stock exchange is on track to introduce 23-hour trading, five days a week, on December 6, 2026.