Share count
360Mpeak FY2025
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CME, CME Group Inc.
Capital Markets & Asset Management financial
CME Group provides primary price discovery and referential pricing information through its market data in a variety of formats, including real-time, historical and derived data for customers in both listed and cash products.
CME Group also offers industry-leading research and analytics tools to provide customers with market education resources.
The graphic below provides a brief overview of key events within CME Group's history: DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange (FX), and agricultural, energy and metals commodities.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$6.5B
+6.4% YoY · 6% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $6.8B 5-yr avg $5.6B
Net margin 63.6% 5-yr avg 57.5%
Revenue $1.9B +14.5% vs yr-ago qtr
Operating margin 69.7% yr-ago 67.5%
Net income $1.2B yr-ago $956M
Net margin 61.4% yr-ago 58.2%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is Clearing and Transaction Fees (81%), MarketData (12%) and OtherRevenue (7%).
- What moves the needle
- Trading volume and the data franchise. What decides it: volumes across its markets, which spike when volatility does; the network economics of a deep liquidity pool rivals cannot easily replicate; and the recurring, high-margin market-data and listing fees layered on top. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Operating margin has run at the high end of fee-business margins across the record (median 61%, above 25% in 10 of 10 years), the economics of a business that takes a cut without carrying the risk. It earns this on little capital, so return on equity has run near 10%, the leverage of a model that needs almost no plant to grow. A high return that does not fade can mark a moat, but whether the volumes and the data franchise hold their pricing is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Clearing and Transaction Fees is 81% of revenue, with MarketData the other meaningful line at 12%.
Revenue by product line, FY2025
- Clearing and Transaction Fees81%$5.3B
- MarketData12%$803M
- OtherRevenue7%$436M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $3.6B | $3.6B | $4.3B | $4.9B | $4.9B | $4.7B | $5.0B | $5.6B | $6.1B | $6.5B | $6.8B | RevenueRevenue |
| 61.2% | 63.4% | 60.5% | 53.2% | 54.0% | 56.4% | 60.1% | 61.6% | 64.1% | 64.9% | 65.6% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| 42.7% | 111.5% | 45.5% | 43.5% | 43.1% | 56.2% | 53.6% | 57.8% | 57.5% | 62.5% | 63.6% | Net marginNet mgn |
| $1.5B | $4.1B | $2.0B | $2.1B | $2.1B | $2.6B | $2.7B | $3.2B | $3.5B | $4.1B | $4.3B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 33% | — | 29% | 21% | 23% | 22% | 23% | 22% | 22% | 24% | 24% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $1.6B | $1.7B | $2.3B | $2.5B | $2.6B | $2.3B | $3.0B | $3.4B | $3.6B | $4.2B | $4.3B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 8% | 18% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 10% | 10% | 12% | 13% | 14% | 16% | Return on equityROE |
| −1% | 9% | −1% | 2% | −0% | 2% | 0% | −0% | −0% | 0% | 1% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $69.4B | $75.8B | $77.5B | $75.2B | $124.7B | $196.8B | $174.2B | $129.7B | $137.4B | $198.4B | $202.0B | Total assetsAssets |
| $2.0B | $2.0B | $1.4B | $1.6B | $1.7B | $2.9B | $2.8B | $3.0B | $3.0B | $4.5B | $2.5B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $20.3B | $22.4B | $25.9B | $26.1B | $26.3B | $27.4B | $26.9B | $26.7B | $26.5B | $28.7B | $26.6B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 339M | 340M | 344M | 358M | 359M | 359M | 359M | 360M | 360M | 360M | 363M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $10.61 | $10.71 | $12.54 | $13.59 | $13.62 | $13.07 | $13.97 | $15.52 | $17.03 | $18.10 | $18.61 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $4.53 | $11.94 | $5.71 | $5.91 | $5.87 | $7.35 | $7.49 | $8.97 | $9.80 | $11.30 | $11.83 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $4.84 | $4.91 | $6.76 | $7.02 | $7.15 | $6.34 | $8.26 | $9.39 | $9.99 | $11.64 | $11.92 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $5.27 | $5.86 | $6.25 | $4.73 | $5.89 | $6.10 | $7.33 | $9.00 | $9.96 | $10.92 | $11.19 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $60.01 | $65.87 | $75.40 | $72.94 | $73.41 | $76.34 | $74.83 | $74.38 | $73.59 | $79.73 | $73.29 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +6.1%/yr | +5.8%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +10.2%/yr | +10.2%/yr |
| EPS | +10.7%/yr | +14.0%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +8.4%/yr | +13.2%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −1.7%/yr | −15.9%/yr |
| Book value / share | +3.2%/yr | +1.7%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Revenue
$6.5Blow FY2016
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Is it a good business?
- Operating margin 64.9%Wide fee margin (≥30%)Operating income $4.2B ÷ revenue $6.5BIndustry peers: median 22%
What this means
The heart of a exchange: how much of each fee dollar survives the cost of running the business. Revenue is a toll on trading volume plus the recurring market-data and listing fees the venue generates, protected by the network economics of a deep liquidity pool that rivals cannot easily replicate. A high margin held for years, through a market it does not control, is the operational mark of a real franchise.
- Net margin 62.5%WideNet income $4.1B ÷ revenue $6.5B
What this means
What reaches the owner after tax and interest. For a capital-light fee business this should be a wide share of revenue; when it is thin despite a high operating margin, debt taken on for acquisitions is usually the reason, so read it next to the balance sheet.
- Return on equity 14%SolidNet income $4.1B ÷ equity $28.7BIndustry peers: median 11%
What this means
Because the business ties up little capital, a healthy fee stream throws off a high return on the equity behind it. Read it with the buyback record: returning capital lifts this ratio honestly, but heavy debt taken to do so can flatter it.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Moderate contestabilityAI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.
In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year
Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.
“Additionally, our existing competitors or new entrants may be developing their own artificial intelligence products and technologies, which may be superior in features or functionality, or cost, to our offerings.”
The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$169.0B
- Cash & short-term investments$2.5B
- Receivables$936M
- Other current assets$165.6B
Current liabilities$166.0B
- Accounts payable$75M
- Other current liabilities$165.9B
Current ratio1.02×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.02×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.02×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$3.0Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+14.5%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.0× → 1.0×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$13.6Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($6.4B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$271M$271M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$18Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
Debt maturity
the debt note, SEC EDGAR →Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.
Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.
Due in the next 12 months$0the first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year
Within two years$0the near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions
Biggest single year$750Min 2030the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest
Total scheduled principal$3.5Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it
Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the balance-sheet debt.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Terrence A. Duffy | $22.9M | $26.9M | $2.3B |
| 2022 | Terrence A. Duffy | $22.9M | $12.5M | $3.0B |
| 2023 | Terrence A. Duffy | $23.5M | $34.2M | $3.4B |
| 2024 | Terrence A. Duffy | $23.9M | $26.8M | $3.6B |
| 2025 | Terrence A. Duffy | $23.4M | $38.2M | $4.2B |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Stock-based compensation$95M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 2% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Capital Markets & Asset Management
The same industry, side by side on fee margins. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Op. margin | Net margin | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LPLALPL Financial Holdings Inc. | $17.0B | 11.0% | 8.3% | 36% |
| ICEIntercontinental Exchange Inc. | $12.6B | 37.7% | 25.8% | 11% |
| NDAQNasdaq Inc. | $8.3B | 24.4% | 17.8% | 13% |
| CMECME Group Inc. | $6.5B | 60.9% | 54.9% | 10% |
| IVZInvesco | $6.4B | 18.4% | 10.3% | 4% |
| CBOECboe Global Markets Inc. | $4.7B | 22.4% | 16.7% | 14% |
| BGCBGC Group Inc. | $2.4B | 10.3% | 5.3% | 11% |
| TWTradeweb Markets Inc. | $2.1B | 34.0% | 23.5% | 6% |
| Group median | — | 23.4% | 17.2% | 11% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what CME Group Inc. has delivered.
CME Group Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
$
Through the cycle, CME Group Inc. earns about $3.5B on its 53.2% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 64.3% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.
Base
—
The assumptions
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+10%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+10%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+10%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—
P/B—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner-earnings yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings $4.3B on 359M shares outstanding (a weighted basic average, the only count this filer tags); net debt $908M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "CME Group Inc. (CME), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CME, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← CMCSA its page in the Manual CMG →
Industry order: ← CLSK the Capital Markets & Asset Management chapter CNCK →