Nasdaq Profits Rise on OMX Merger

Nasdaq OMX Group(NDAQ Quote) solidly beat analyst bottom-line estimates on the now-combined companies' strong revenue and record volume.

Excluding merger-related charges, the Nasdaq and Swedish exchange operator OMX Nordic Exchange earned 54 cents a diluted share in the first quarter, compared to 33 cents a share for the prior year. Results also exclude a $26 million pre-tax gain on the investment in DIFX (Dubai International Financial Exchange). Analysts had been forecasting 49 cents per share according to Thomson Reuters.

The exchange operators delivered combined total revenues of $918.2 million for the quarter, a 29.5% jump over last year's $709 million and up 10.4% sequentially. Total equity volume matched trades soared to 153.7 billion shares in the quarter, which was 61.5% more than the 95.2 billion shares in 2007. However, fees associated with clearing transactions were reduced. Execution and trade reporting revenues dropped as a result of the lowered fees, coming in at $91.1 million, vs. $98.5 million for last year's quarter. ...