CME Group Q4 Revenues Improve to $900 million

CME Group has released its full-year financial report for 2017. The report showed that total revenues for Q4 reached $900 million, a slight bump from Q3 results of $891 million, lifting total revenues for the full year to $3.6 billion. Meanwhile, operating income for the fourth quarter came in at $537 million, bringing the total level to $2.3 billion for the full year.

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Net income for Q4 benefited from the recently imposed Tax Cut and Jobs Act in the US, boosting the data with a $2.6 billion tax benefit. As a result, Q4 net income was officially released at $2.9 billion, with diluted earnings per share reaching $8.63. On an adjusted basis, Q4 net income and diluted earnings per share posted results of $383 million and $1.12, respectively.

CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy issued a statement pertaining to the financial report: “We kept expenses relatively flat for the third straight year, and paid out more than $2 billion in dividends to our shareholders in 2017. Looking ahead, 2018 is starting out strong, with average daily volume up more than 15 percent to date, driven by broad-based strength across our asset classes.”

The full year net income came in at $4.3 billion, while diluted earnings per share had a strong result of $11.94. Relative to 2016, adjusted net income increased by 6% and reached $1.6 billion. Similarly, on an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share posted a 5% improvement YoY reaching $4.77.

Volume Slightly Drops

The YoY average daily volume showed a slight decrease of 2% to 15.9 million contracts. The average rate per contract in the Q4 2017 was $0.736, down 1.7% from Q3 levels of $0.749. According to the CME statement, the minor drop can be attributed to a “lower proportion of commodity volume as well as higher member trading.”

Mr. Daffy added: “In a year of historically low Volatility Volatility In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Traders In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Traders Read this Term, we set annual volume records in three of our six asset classes as well as in total options.”