What A Difference A Ticker Makes

Yesterday, I wrote about how the SEC’s new rules on ticker symbols can help companies. Today, I figured I would explain how the new rules help the exchanges. After all, the move to change ticker tradition was initiated by NASDAQ.

Photo by indio, courtesy of flickr

The new rules eliminated the NYSE versus NASDAQ barrier between three and four letter tickers. Now, if a company chooses to switch exchanges, then it can keep its existing ticker.

Keeping an existing ticker can make the transition easier, but why would a company want to switch exchanges?

It is cheaper to be listed on NASDAQ than the NYSE. Could the change be more about the bottom line than the number of letters in a ticker? I think so.

Both exchanges charge listing fees and annual fees. Fee schedules differ by company due to the nature of the listed securities and other factors such as the number of shares outstanding. Here’s one example of the cost differential:

The NYSE caps fees at $500,000 per year per issuer, whereas the NASDAQ Global Market charges a maximum annual fee of $95,000 with entry fees maxing out at $150,000. That’s a pretty big gap. (Fees for stock listings retrieved from NYSE and NASDAQ web sites.)

Several companies have recently switched to the cheaper exchange including News Corp. (Ticker: NWS), DreamWorks Animation (Ticker: DWA) and The DIRECTV Group (Ticker: DTV).

Perhaps the ticker doesn’t make much of a difference and it’s where the ticker is listed that counts.