MIAX Q2 2026 - Post-Call Earnings Update

Event: Quartr Q2 2026 event Retrieved: 2026-08-06T11:25:00Z Comparison mode: maximal Scorecard contract: v1

Consensus scorecard

• Consensus scorecard, bulleted equivalent (carried forward unchanged from the preliminary report for this event):
  • Revenue / net revenue (total revenues less cost of revenues): Quartr actual $141.1m against API Ninjas consensus $135.857m - Beat +$5.244m, +3.9%.
  • EPS / adjusted diluted: Quartr actual $0.48 against API Ninjas consensus $0.408 - Beat +$0.072, +17.5%.

Management and Q&A

• The Nasdaq litigation is resolved and closed. Chairman and CEO Thomas P. Gallagher said that "as disclosed in our recent 8-K filing, we've resolved the Nasdaq litigation and now consider this matter closed." The preliminary report flagged the $30.0m settlement charge and $3.0m of litigation costs as an open exposure with no stated resolution; the call closes that question.
• July options market share rebounded to roughly 17.1%, and management said early August is better. CFO Lance Emmons said "market share has sort of rebounded about 17.1% in July. Still obviously early days in August, but improved from there a little bit further." Gallagher added that July "is historically a low period of time" and that "August looks even better as we obviously are only in the first couple of days." This directly addresses the quarter's share decline to 16.5% from 17.3% in Q1 2026.
• Management explicitly told analysts not to model the record Q2 revenue per contract. Emmons: "we would not recommend modeling our Q2 RPC of $0.124 into the second half of the year," and "we think, again, the tier effects will sort of bring the rate back down." He put the expected second-half range at "closer to the last couple of quarters, which kind of range between probably about $0.103 in the third quarter to $0.11 in the first quarter."
• Four roughly equal drivers were given for the RPC step-down, in Emmons's words "these all kind of contribute roughly about the same": tier effects reversing as market share rebounds (lower share meant "less volume at sort of the highest rebate tiers or lowest fee tiers"); a return to more normalized flow mix after "favorable mix in terms of higher capture flow" in Q2; fee changes made in July and August; and the options regulatory fee, where "as volumes have been growing faster than our regulatory fee, the effect on the RPC naturally comes down," plus "a small part as well, just due to the new methodology that came out July 1st."
• The share-versus-price trade-off is being actively worked, and one experiment failed. Chief Strategy Officer and MIAX Futures CEO Shelly Brown said the company "made pricing changes in Sapphire, primarily for the trading floor," and "tried some pricing changes in July on Pearl to try to attract further high-profit flow. We reverted some of those for this month. Did not have the expected impact." He characterised the balance as "as much an art as it is a science" and said "market share and RPC are inversely correlated. We're always trying to maximize the net revenue."
• The adjusted operating expense guidance cut and the share-based compensation guidance raise are the same event. Asked by Ken Worthington of J.P. Morgan how the company could lower operating expense guidance while raising stock compensation and depreciation guidance, Emmons said the compensation committee "updated the executive compensation plans, now that we're a public company," and "we moved a little less towards cash-based compensation, so that comes out of OpEx, and a little more into share-based compensation. Those two are mostly tied together." The only other change he identified was "some pickup in some marketing and fees related, marketing and incentives related to the Bloomberg products."
• The $1.8m of historical data sales is confirmed non-recurring. Emmons: "this type of revenue is episodic. Therefore, we would not model it into future quarterly estimates."
• The composition of the 40% first-half growth in options non-transaction fees was quantified for the first time. Asked by Jeff Schmitt of William Blair, Emmons said "about half of that increase is from fee increases, and half of it is from additional connections and services that members have subscribed to," referring to the 1 January fee increases and the expiry of MIAX Sapphire launch waivers or discounts.
• The Bloomberg futures launch is on plan but immaterial so far. Emmons said the products "launched in May and did not contribute materially to the Q2 results." Gallagher said "screens are lit. The depth of the market and the volumes over the past 60 days are right in line with our expectations."
• Retail distribution is the stated top near-term priority and has a timetable. Brown said "several are working through various phases of connectivity and working out clearing arrangements. We're working with several firms that we expect will be enabling customer activity over the next several weeks," and "I think we'll start seeing retail exposure to the product over the next couple of months." He also said "we have additional liquidity providers coming on board over the next several weeks."
• The Bloomberg license terms were stated on the call. Gallagher described "a services license agreement" and "our 10-year exclusive license" to "list index futures, options on futures, and cash index options based on the B500, B100, and B500 volatility indices in North and South America."
• A $40m capital injection into the FCM was disclosed. Gallagher said the FCM "is in the process of applying for OCC membership" and "we are increasing its net capital by $40 million." Brown explained the rationale: clearing the Bloomberg products at OCC "enhance[s] the margin offsets and capital efficiency for our members," and having Dorman a member early "provides those FCMs that don't have OCC access, indirect access to clearing."
• New agricultural futures products were dated and scoped. Gallagher said "in late October, we are going to launch the first of a series of agricultural futures products that are primarily focused in the fertilizer area." Brown said there are "four additional products," described as "somewhat novel products in the industry," driven by "supply chain problems that have occurred due to geopolitical issues overseas."
• Agricultural futures were framed sequentially rather than year over year. Gallagher said the company was "pleased with the performance of our agricultural futures business versus Q1, as ADV grew 20% and capture rates improved by 14%." The presentation's year-over-year comparison shows agricultural ADV down 28.6%; the call comparison is against Q1 2026, not Q2 2025.
• Perpetual futures: interest, no commitment. Gallagher said "our focus remains on our core options and futures businesses," that "our technology, with some enhancements, is capable of supporting these products," that the company "welcome[s] the CFTC's framework," and that "we recognize that the CFTC's recent approvals in this area have led to litigation. We see these recent developments as a potential opportunity."
• On CME's single stock futures, management is deliberately waiting. Brown noted a prior single stock futures product "delisted in 2020, I believe, due to lack of interest," that a synthetic single stock future can already be built from an options combo, and that the real draw would be "potential regulatory arbitrage or margin arbitrage between a CFTC-regulated product versus an SEC-regulated product." His conclusion: "we're going to sit back and watch for a little bit because as I said, the last product was a failure."
• New listings are outperforming the group's average share. Gallagher named "SpaceX and SK hynix" in a "growing pipeline of new listings" and said "our early market share in these new listings is tracking ahead of our overall market share."
• The market-share profile by name type was explained. Brown said MIAX does better in "more liquid classes that are higher-priced equities that tend to be slightly higher volatility" and in "names that have the Monday and Wednesday weekly expirations, where we also outperform. They're very retail-focused." He added: "Names that are more institutional-focused, we don't perform quite as well in."
• The technology moat was pressed and answered. Asked by Chris Brendler of Rosenblatt whether risk management is a genuine advantage, Brown said the functionality is "copyable in that... once we file a rule with the SEC, anybody can copy that," but "they don't have the speed and the throughput we have." CIO Douglas Schafer said MIAX has "focused on massive overbuilding of the technology so that we're not ever in a position to have to limit a market maker's intended behavior," calling it "a combination of probably 1,000 things we do on the technology side, not one big thing."
• The ReiThera stake was described. Gallagher said "we hold our remaining 10% stake at cost, with any future distributions flowing through as dividend income," and that MIAX is "a passive minority investor... not involved in the day-to-day management."
• Debt maturity was stated. Emmons said the company ended the quarter with "outstanding debt of less than $2 million, which matures in December."

Guidance and KPI clarification

• Guidance table, bulleted equivalent: adjusted operating expenses lowered to $260-270m from $265-275m; share-based compensation raised to $29-32m from $27-30m; capital expenditures and capitalized internally developed software unchanged at $40-45m; depreciation and amortization raised to $35-39m from $33-38m; adjusted effective tax rate unchanged at 27-29% against a 27% Q2 2026 actual. No revenue, EBITDA or earnings guidance was given on the call.

• Call-only KPI table, bulleted equivalent: July 2026 options market share about 17.1% with early August better; second-half RPC expected closer to the $0.103-$0.11 range of recent quarters rather than Q2's $0.124; agricultural futures ADV +20% and capture +14% versus Q1 2026; first-half options non-transaction fee growth of about 40% split roughly evenly between fee increases and new connections; $1.8m of episodic historical data sales in Q2; $40m of new net capital going into the FCM; a 10-year exclusive Bloomberg index license for the Americas; four fertilizer futures products launching late October 2026; retail broker enablement in weeks and retail exposure in months; sub-$2m debt maturing in December; and no dividend or buyback planned.

Updated neutral analysis

• The call converts the quarter's two most ambiguous figures into forward guidance the preliminary could not supply. Management said outright that the record $0.124 revenue per contract should not be carried into the second half, and pointed analysts to a $0.103-$0.11 band. On the volume side, the 16.5% quarterly share that looked like share loss was followed by roughly 17.1% in July.
• Those two disclosures pull in opposite directions on second-half net revenue: higher share at a lower capture rate. Management's own framing is that share and RPC are inversely correlated and that it manages toward net revenue rather than either input. No net revenue guidance was given, so the combined effect is not quantified anywhere.
• The Nasdaq matter is now closed. The $30.0m settlement and $3.0m of litigation costs in the quarter are therefore a terminal charge rather than an open-ended exposure, which is a materially better answer than the presentation alone supported.
• The adjusted operating expense guidance cut is largely a reclassification, not a cost reduction. Management said the cash-to-equity shift in executive compensation moved spend out of operating expense and into share-based compensation, and that those two guidance changes are "mostly tied together." Combining the two, the midpoint of adjusted operating expenses fell $5m while the share-based compensation midpoint rose $2m.
• Bloomberg financial futures contributed nothing material to Q2, and the futures segment's adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $(9.5)m. The stated path to revenue runs through retail broker connectivity, which management dated in weeks-to-months rather than quarters, and through OCC clearing, which requires the FCM's membership application to complete. Neither has a committed date.
• The $40m FCM net capital increase is the first sizeable, specific use disclosed for the $660m cash balance. Management explicitly ruled out a dividend or buyback for now, citing the approaching one-year IPO anniversary and a preference to assess opportunities first.
• The four fertilizer futures products slated for late October are the first dated new-product catalyst beyond Bloomberg, and are positioned as demand-driven rather than speculative.
• Management's answer on perpetual futures and on CME single stock futures was, in both cases, optionality without commitment: capable technology, active regulatory engagement, and an explicit decision to watch rather than build.
• Nothing on the call revised any reported Q2 figure. Every actual in the preliminary report stands, and no new quarterly financial figure was disclosed.

Market context and limitations

• API Ninjas snapshot: MIAX $45.96 on NYSE, volume 1,757,025, quote timestamped 2026-08-06T11:13:24Z, retrieved 2026-08-06T11:15:00Z. This is a single pre-market quote of unstated session basis captured the morning after the call, not a measured reaction to the release or the call.
• The Quartr transcript for event 661758 is complete and not live; all 100 paragraphs were read in full for this update.
• The consensus scorecard is carried forward verbatim from the preliminary report for this event (reports/preliminary/2026-08-05-miax-q2-2026.md). No new revenue or EPS actual was disclosed on the call.
• Quartr standardized financials for company 20962 stop at Q1 2026, so no standardized Q2 2026 statement exists to cross-check any call figure.
• July 2026 market share of "about 17.1%" was given verbally and rounded; the July monthly trading-results 8-K filed to this event states MIAX Exchange Group options market share of 17.1% for July 2026 against 16.7% in July 2025.
• The August market share commentary covers only the first two trading days of the month and was given without a figure.
• The expected second-half RPC range was described as approximate and framed by reference to prior quarters rather than issued as guidance; management stated it is "difficult to guide on capture rates."
• Quotations above are taken from the Quartr in-house transcript and reflect its rendering of spoken remarks. Two passages are attributed by the transcript in a way that appears to cross speakers within a single answer on the FCM and OCC question; the substance is reproduced as transcribed.
• The company name transcribed as "ReiThera" for the 10% minority stake is reproduced as it appears in the transcript and was not verified against a filing.
• Gallagher's statement that the Nasdaq litigation was resolved refers to "our recent 8-K filing"; that 8-K is not among the Quartr documents attached to this event and was not read.
• Analyst-supplied figures and characterisations in the Q&A are attributed to the analyst who offered them, not to the company.
• The Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 is referenced by the presentation but is not among the Quartr documents for this event.

Source links

• Quartr Q2 2026 transcript
• Quartr Q2 2026 earnings presentation
• Quartr presentation 2026 guidance page
• Quartr July 2026 trading results 8-K