I remember hearing about the stock of the Nasdaq exchange trading on the pink sheets a while back. Well they quietly listed the stock, NDAQ, on the NASDAQ National Market last week. Here’s a note on it from Briefing.com:
12:01 NDAQ NASDAQ — Small Cap Profile (10.55 +0.55)
Although Chicago Merc (CME 209.25 -0.25) is down for 2005, the stock has more than doubled over the last year and is up approx. 500% from its IPO price. With CME having become a trader favorite, but now out of reach of some momentum traders, watch for potential interest in NDAQ shares. Nasdaq, obviously, is a provider of securities listing, trading, and information products. The Nasdaq Stock Market is the largest stock-based equity market in the US, both in terms of number of listed cos and traded share volume. Its revenue sources are diverse: transaction services, market data products, listing fees etc. The co notes that this distinguishes it from most of its competitors, including ECNs and the Archipelago Exchange (AX 19.35 +0.11), which rely primarily on trading-volume-driven revenue. For the first 9 mos of 2004, the co derived 59% of revs from its Market Services segment and 41% from its Issuer Services segment. Over the same period, the co posted pro forma sales of $495.6 mln…. The stock is starting to see interest following its move off the Bulletin Board and is currently trading just below a 52-wk high. One potential overhang to keep in mind is that the co recently priced a $155 mln secondary offering. After coming off the bulletin boards with little fanfare, NDAQ shares are now trading near 52-wk highs and appear to be finding interest as traders search for the next CME-like opportunity.
I hardly see it as a CME sympathy play but it could be an interesting stock nonetheless.
