How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in CME Group (CME) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to CME for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

CME Group's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at CME Group's main business drivers.

Formed in 2007 by the merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), CME Group is the largest futures exchange in the world in terms of trading volume as well as notional value traded. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, it is the holding company for CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX, NEX and their respective subsidiaries.

CME Group offers a broad range of products covering major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals. Trades are executed through CME Group's electronic trading platforms, open outcry and privately negotiated transactions. CME Group also operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe, which offer clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives.

CME Group’s clearing house clears, settles and guarantees futures and options contracts traded through its exchanges. The exchanges consist of designated contract markets for the trading of futures and options contracts. The company also clears swaps contracts through a clearing house.  Thus, the majority of CME Group’s revenues are derived from clearing and transaction fees. These fees include electronic trading fees, surcharges for privately negotiated transactions and other volume-related charges for exchange-traded and cleared swaps contracts. The company's product line includes interest-rate trading, energy and equity trading contracts, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities and metal.

Notably, contract volume, and consequently revenues, tend to increase during periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Apart from trading volatility, rate structure, product mix, venue and the percentage of trades executed by customers who are members compared with non-member customers shape clearing and transaction fee revenues, which contribute the lion’s share to the top line.

Story Continues

Bottom Line

Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For CME Group, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in May 2015 would be worth $2,908.62, or a gain of 190.86%, as of May 19, 2025, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

The S&P 500 rose 180.69% and the price of gold increased 153.90% over the same time frame in comparison.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for CME.

CME Group’s strong market position, driven by varied derivative product lines, bodes well. Efforts to expand and cross-sell through strategic alliances, acquisitions, new product initiatives and a stable global presence are encouraging. While higher electronic trading volume adds scalability, product innovation and a growing proportion of volume from customers outside the United States have been driving results. Solid liquidity supports wealth distribution to shareholders. Shares of CME Group have underperformed its industry over the past year. However, escalating expenses due to higher technology costs are likely to put pressure on its margins. Also, its diversified product portfolio is significantly exposed to volatile interest rates, stricter government regulations and limited credit availability in unstable capital and credit markets.

Shares have gained 5.24% over the past four weeks and there have been 9 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2025 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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CME Group Inc. (CME):Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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