Zacks_Analysts' Blog : NASDAQ Partners Bolsa Electronica - Analyst Blog

On Friday,  NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) announced an alliance with Latin American exchange Bolsa Electronica de Chile (BEC), in order to provide technological support and advisory services.

As per the deal, BEC will use NASDAQ’s trading technology, Inet, which is already in use in over 70 exchanges in 50 countries. The move will improve BEC’s latency (the time taken in sending, matching and acknowledging a trade), performance and throughput capacity.

Additionally, NASDAQ will help BEC in creating new indices and improving existing ones. Additionally, it will advise the Chilean exchange on cross-listing of shares and mull over the creation of a Chilean peso-dollar futures contract. Currently, about 12 currency derivatives are traded on NASDAQ.

The deal is a part of NASDAQ’s attempt to expand its global presence. The exchange is perpetually in competition with NYSE Euronext Inc. (NYX) to provide technology and services all over the world.

NASDAQ is expected to declare its third quarter 2011 earnings before the market opens on October 26, 2011.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s third-quarter earnings is currently at 67 cents per share, up about 33% year-over-year. Of the 15 firms covering the stock, 11 firms revised their estimates upward, while 1 downward revision was witnessed in the last 30 days.

For 2011, NASDAQ’s earnings are expected to be about $2.52 per share, climbing about 27% year-over-year.

The company currently carries a Zacks #2 Rank, which translates into a short-term Buy rating.