New York, February 22, 2006 — The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. (NASDAQ®; NASDAQ: NDAQ) and Mergent, Inc., a leading provider of business and financial information on publicly listed companies, today announced the launch of the NASDAQ Dividend Achievers™ Index, a powerful tool for dividend-focused investing.
The NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index is designed to track the performance of U.S. companies that are listed on NASDAQ and meet Dividend Achievers requirements of increased annual regular dividend payments for the last 10 or more consecutive years. A subset of Mergent's Broad Dividend Achievers Index, the Index offers a unique approach for NASDAQ investors seeking a long-term portfolio of higher risk-adjusted returns.
“We are pleased to be partnering with NASDAQ at a time when recognition is growing for the benefits of dividend-focused investing,” said Jonathan Worrall, Mergent CEO. “The NASDAQ-traded Dividend Achievers are solid, dividend-paying companies with an historically strong performance pattern, and they offer investors excellent long-term investment opportunities.”
NASDAQ Executive Vice President, John Jacobs commented, “The NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Indexes will provide investors with a new and useful tool that seeks to track the performance of some of NASDAQ's largest and industry leading companies. We are pleased to collaborate with Mergent to create indexes that are comprised of diverse sets of NASDAQ companies. Indexing is a recognized strategy that appeals to many investors.”
Mergent's Dividend Achievers are companies that have increased their annual regular dividends for at least the past 10 consecutive years and have met specific liquidity screening criteria. The Dividend Achievers are typically companies with strong cash reserves, solid balance sheets and a proven record of consistent earnings growth. Mergent has been identifying these strong dividend-paying companies for more than 25 years.
The NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index is calculated using a market capitalization weighting methodology. The index will be calculated and disseminated on a price return basis (NASDAQ: DIVQ) and a total return basis (NASDAQ: DVQT).
For more information about the NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index, including constituents and performance information, please visit www.dividendachievers.com .
About Mergent
Mergent, Inc., a Xinhua Finance company (TSE Mothers: 9399), is the preferred leading provider of business and financial data on global publicly listed companies. The company is headquartered in New York, NY, and Charlotte, NC, with sales offices in key North American cities as well as London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, and Sydney. Mergent's databases include information on more than 15,000 U.S. public companies and 20,000 non-U.S. public companies in more than 100 countries. Mergent is the publisher of the Dividend Achievers™ family of indexes including Broad, International, High Growth and Canadian. Mergent products and services include Ford Equity Research, independent equity research with buy, sell and hold recommendations; Mergent Online; Mergent Manuals, Handbooks and Investment Guides; EventsData, web-based reporting of corporate actions and events; BondSource, access to municipal and corporate fixed income data and end-of-day evaluation pricing. For more information, visit our websites, www.dividendachievers.com and www.mergent.com
About NASDAQ
NASDAQ is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities market in the United States. With over 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom at www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/ .
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Media Contacts:
Wayne Lee, NASDAQ
301.978.4875
Wayne.D.Lee@Nasdaq.com
Shirley Petersen, Mergent
212.413.7751
Shirley.petersen@mergent.com
