At a glance
CME Group Inc is worth $109.61B, about 27 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 6.4% to $6.52B in fiscal 2025, with 62.5% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 6.0% a year. It pays a 3.69% dividend yield, and returned $15.58B to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +19.8% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +11.4% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 37.3% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 31.7% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 14 months and 24 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
CME Group runs exchanges where investors and businesses trade futures and options. A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell something, such as oil, corn or Treasury bonds, at a set price on a later date. An option gives the right, but not the duty, to do so. Its four exchanges (CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX) list contracts on interest rates, stock indexes such as the E-mini S&P 500, currencies, energy, metals, farm goods and cryptocurrencies. Customers include banks, professional traders, large companies, producers, governments and central banks.
Most revenue comes from fees charged each time a contract is traded and cleared. In clearing, CME's clearing house becomes the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer. This limits the risk that one side fails to pay. In 2025, clearing and transaction fees brought in $5.28 billion, or 81% of $6.52 billion in revenue. Futures and options trading hit a record average of 28.1 million contracts a day that year.
Selling market data, such as real-time and historical prices, added $803 million, about 12%. Other revenue made up the remaining 7%. CME also runs BrokerTec, an electronic market for U.S. Treasuries, European government bonds and repo (short-term loans backed by bonds), and EBS, a currency trading platform.
Price history
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CME +19.8% over the year to Nov 2, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Clearing and Transaction Fees | $5.28B | 81% |
| MarketData | $803.1M | 12.3% |
| OtherRevenue | $436.4M | 6.7% |
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $1.74B, up 13% from a year earlier, and net income was $1.04B (+14.2%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $6.52B (+6.4% year over year; +6.0% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 62.5% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +6.0% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 64.9% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 64.3% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 14.2% watch |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 2.1% weak |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $4.88B | $2.11B | $2.52B |
| FY2021 | $4.69B | $2.64B | $2.28B |
| FY2022 | $5.02B | $2.69B | $2.97B |
| FY2023 | $5.58B | $3.23B | $3.38B |
| FY2024 | $6.13B | $3.53B | $3.60B |
| FY2025 | $6.52B | $4.07B | $4.19B |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $109.61B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 27.4 |
| Dividend yield | 3.69% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CME price data to Nov 2, 2026 | +16.0% | +19.8% | +17.9% | +11.4% | +16.1% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +16.0% |
| 2025 | +19.8% |
| 2024 | +15.4% |
| 2023 | +31.3% |
| 2022 | -22.9% |
| 2021 | +29.5% |
| 2020 | -6.3% |
| 2019 | +9.7% |
| 2018 | +32.1% |
| 2017 | +32.3% |
| 2016 | +33.9% |
| 2015 | +7.7% |
| 2014 | +18.3% |
| 2013 | +64.0% |
| 2012 | +11.3% |
| 2011 | -22.7% |
| 2010 | -2.7% |
| 2009 | +64.3% |
| 2008 | -69.4% |
| 2007 | +34.7% |
| 2006 | +38.9% |
| 2005 | +60.9% |
| 2004 | +216.6% |
| 2003 | +66.1% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 70.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 77.9%, back to its old high 92.9 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 32.5% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 37.3%, back to its old high 13.7 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 22.7% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 31.7%, back to its old high 24.2 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-11-03 to 2026-11-03 (25 read): 3 open-market purchases ($157K) and 6 sales ($8.9M).
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2026 | Terrence A Duffy Chairman and CEO, Director | sell | $3.9M |
| Nov 2, 2026 | Julie Winkler Sr MD Chief Commercial Officer | sell | $3.1M |
| Oct 27, 2026 | Sunil Cutinho Chief Information Officer | sell | $1.5M |
| Sep 10, 2026 | Terrence A Duffy Chairman and CEO, Director | sell | $173K |
| Sep 14, 2026 | Elizabeth A Cook Director | sell | $140K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| Vanguard Capital Management | 7.45% | Mar 31, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in CME
| DIVO Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF | 5.25% |
| IAI iShares U.S. Broker-Dealers & Securities Exchanges ETF | 4.98% |
| DIVL Madison Dividend Value ETF | 4.7% |
| DIVZ Opal Dividend Income ETF | 4.2% |
| HDV iShares Core High Dividend ETF | 4.12% |
| BAMG Brookstone Growth Stock ETF | 3.78% |
| CZAR Themes Natural Monopoly ETF | 3.75% |
| TOLL Tema Monopolies and Oligopolies ETF | 3.56% |
What could go wrong
- Revenue rises and falls with trading. About 81% of 2025 revenue came from trading and clearing fees. Uncertainty tends to lift volume, but calmer markets, less risk-taking or the aftermath of a crisis can shrink trading, and profits with it.
- Big clearing firms want clearing split off. Some of CME's largest clearing firms argue exchanges shouldn't own clearing houses. Rule changes letting them clear CME trades elsewhere could cut fees. Even without such changes, these firms may trade less on CME.
- Losses if a clearing firm fails. CME's clearing house stands behind every trade, so the collapse of a big clearing firm could leave it with losses. Revenue is also concentrated: one firm made up 12% of 2025 clearing and transaction fees.
- Outages or attacks could halt trading. Trading runs on electronic systems such as CME Globex. Failures, outages at outside suppliers, terrorism or cyberattacks could halt markets and bring costs. CME says it may face more of these threats than other companies.
- Heavy and changing regulation. CME answers to regulators in the U.S., UK and EU. New rules, such as a tax on trades, could raise costs or cut volume. Breaking rules could bring fines or endanger its regulated status.
- Intense competition for trading volume. CME says it faces intense competition. If it loses customers or volume, its markets could become less liquid, meaning large orders are harder to fill quickly. That can drive still more trading away.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Bylaws or fiscal year changed
- Executive or board change
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change; Investor presentation or announcement
- Shareholder vote results
- Shareholder vote results
- Major agreement signed
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
CME pays out nearly all of its profit as dividends, but the per-share record is uneven. Dividends per share were $5.90 in FY2020 and FY2021 and rose to $8.50, $9.65 and $10.40 over FY2022–FY2024. The figure for FY2025 was $5.00, so there is no unbroken run of yearly increases. Total cash paid as dividends rose each year, to $3.93 billion in FY2025. That was about 97% of earnings and 94% of free cash flow (cash left after running and investing in the business), which leaves little cushion if profits dip. The yield was 3.84% as of October 28, 2026. No buybacks were recorded over FY2021–FY2025. About $15.6 billion went to shareholders as dividends.
The shares have fallen hard in downturns. They dropped 77.9% in the 2008 financial crisis and took nearly eight years to recover. They fell 37.3% in the 2020 COVID crash (about 14 months to recover) and 31.7% in the 2022 bear market (about two years). Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds.
Questions investors ask
How does CME Group make money?
Mainly from fees each time a contract is traded and cleared on its exchanges. In 2025, clearing and transaction fees brought in $5.28 billion, or 81% of its $6.52 billion revenue. Selling market data, such as real-time and historical prices, added $803 million, about 12%. Other revenue made up the rest. Its exchanges list futures and options on interest rates, stock indexes, currencies, energy, metals, farm goods and cryptocurrencies.
Does CME Group raise its dividend every year?
Not on the per-share figures in its filings. Dividends per share rose from $5.90 in FY2020 to $10.40 in FY2024, and the figure for FY2025 was $5.00. Total cash paid as dividends, however, rose each year from FY2020 to FY2025. It reached $3.93 billion in FY2025, about 97% of that year's earnings. Because the two measures point different ways, it is worth looking at both. The dividend yield was 3.84% as of October 28, 2026.
Does CME stock hold up in a market crash?
Not reliably. CME's 10-K says uncertainty tends to lift trading volume, yet the shares fell 77.9% from peak to low in the 2008 financial crisis. They did not regain that peak until August 2016. They dropped 37.3% in the 2020 COVID crash and recovered in about 14 months. In the 2022 bear market they fell 31.7% and took about two years to recover. In the year to October 28, 2026, the shares fell as much as 31.1% from a high.
What is CME Group's P/E ratio?
About 26 as of October 28, 2026, based on FY2025 diluted earnings of $11.16 per share. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio compares the share price with yearly profit, so buyers were paying about $26 for each $1 of earnings. CME's market value was about $105 billion. Net income rose 15.5% in FY2025 to $4.07 billion. In the quarter ended September 30, 2026, revenue rose 13% and net income rose 14.2% from a year earlier.
Does CME Group have a lot of debt?
Not much compared with its earnings. As of September 30, 2026, CME had about $3.43 billion of debt and $2.33 billion of cash and investments, so debt exceeded cash by about $1.1 billion. Net income was $4.07 billion in FY2025. The 10-K still lists debt as a risk because the company could borrow more. It also notes that a credit rating cut could raise its borrowing costs.