CME Group (CME) Q3 2026 Earnings Report
MX:CME Q3 2026 EPS Results
- Actual EPS
- MXN 56.75
- Consensus EPS
- MXN 56.19
- Beat/Miss
- Beat by +MXN 0.56
- One Year Ago EPS
- MXN 50.36
MX:CME Q3 2026 Revenue Results
- Actual Revenue
- MXN 32.65B
- Expected Revenue
- MXN 32.23B
- Beat/Miss
- Beat by +MXN 421.20M
- YoY Revenue Growth
- +12.99%
Earnings Announcement Details
- Quarter
- Q3 2026
- Date
- 10/21/2026
- Time
- Before Open
- Conference Call
- Wednesday, October 21, 2026
MX:CME Upcoming Earnings
CME Group's next earnings date is estimated for February 10, 2027, based on past reporting schedules.
Q3 2026 Earnings Call Audio
MX:CME Q3 2026 Earnings Call
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Q3 2026 Earnings Slide Deck
Q3 2026 Earnings Call Summary
Earnings Call Sentiment|Positive
The call was strongly positive, led by record third-quarter volume, revenue, market data, international activity, earnings, open interest, capital efficiency, retail acquisition, and shareholder returns. Management also highlighted broad product innovation, cloud and clearing initiatives, strong client demand, and multiple growth opportunities. The main negatives were regulatory uncertainty around Compute Futures and perpetuals, the withdrawal of the 24/7 WTI filing, lower clearing-house balances affecting net interest income, and several initiatives that remained in early or ramp-up stages. Overall, the highlights significantly outweighed the lowlights.
Company Guidance
Management said it is on track for the December 7 launch of CME Securities Clearing, expects to begin migrating its markets to Google Cloud in late 2027, and expects the October 1 pricing changes to have an annualized impact of somewhere in the range of 0.5%-1% of clearing and transaction fees; the Cboe licensing agreement may provide increases starting in 2027, not 2032, while firms are targeting Q4 to be fully up and running for CME FICC Cross Margining, which is expected to have a ramp-up period. As the company enters the fourth quarter, volume is surpassing last year's record fourth quarter by 17%, it is tracking 12% ahead of last year's record volume year-to-date, and management remains firmly on track to deliver another record year, but said there is no fundamental change in the outlook and it does not share specific expectations about future market data growth.
- Record Third-Quarter Trading VolumeThird-quarter average daily volume reached 29.4 million contracts, the highest third-quarter average daily volume in CME Group's history and up 16% year over year. Growth was broad-based, with double-digit year-over-year volume growth in all six asset classes; financial and commodity products each grew 16%.
- Strong Open Interest and Capital EfficiencyQuarter-end open interest reached 128 million contracts, rose above 133 million contracts in October, and was the highest open interest at the end of September in CME Group's history. CME also set a record for large open interest holders in its interest rate and foreign exchange complexes and delivered record third-quarter capital efficiency, saving customers an average of over $100 billion a day in margin.
- Record International BusinessInternational average daily volume reached a record 9 million contracts, up 22% year over year. EMEA volume was 6.5 million contracts, up 20%, while APAC volume was 2.1 million contracts, up 28%. International growth was led by energy products, up 40%, agricultural products, up 28%, and equity index products, up 24%.
- Record Revenue and Market Data PerformanceThird-quarter revenue was $1.7 billion, up 13% from the third quarter of 2025 and a record for a third quarter in aggregate. Market data revenue reached a new all-time quarterly record of $243 million, up 20%, marking the 34th consecutive quarter of year-over-year market data revenue growth.
- Operating Leverage and Earnings GrowthAdjusted operating income was $1.2 billion, up 15% year over year, with a 69.4% adjusted operating margin. Adjusted net income was $1.1 billion, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $3.02, up 13% from Q3 2025, and adjusted net income margin was 62.4%.
- Strong Year-to-Date and Fourth-Quarter Volume MomentumThrough the first three quarters, revenue had grown 9% and adjusted earnings per share had grown 11%. As the fourth quarter began, volume was surpassing the prior year's record fourth quarter by 17%, while year-to-date volume was tracking 12% ahead of the prior year's record level. Management said CME remained firmly on track to deliver another record year.
- Significant Shareholder ReturnsCME Group returned nearly $1 billion to shareholders during the quarter, including $465 million in regular quarterly dividends and $524 million in share repurchases. Management said it had completed the redeployment of the OSTTRA funds through the repurchase program.
- Product Innovation and 24/7 Trading ExpansionDuring the quarter, CME launched Single Stock futures and E-nano Equity Index futures and expanded 24/7 trading to its 1-Ounce Gold and 100-Ounce Silver contracts. Management said weekend volumes for the gold and silver contracts were approximately 20%-30% of those contracts' average daily volume, and noted strong traction from 24/7 cryptocurrency products launched earlier in the year.
- CME Securities Clearing Launch PreparationCME Group said it was on track for the December 7 launch of CME Securities Clearing, ahead of the SEC's Treasury clearing mandate.
- Cloud Migration ProgressAs part of its ongoing cloud migration with Google Cloud, CME opened its Dallas disaster recovery facility for client testing in June. Management said infrastructure performance had been positive, with latency and consistency as good as or better than its on-premises offering. The primary Chicago region was progressing to plan, with market migration expected to begin in late 2027.
- Compute Futures Client DemandManagement said Compute Futures had generated significant client engagement after nearly two years of development. Early interest was reported from neocloud players, data center operators, banks, funds, proprietary trading firms, chip providers, and other participants seeking to manage exposure to AI infrastructure, data centers, hyperscalers, and chips. The proposed index provider, Silicon Data, was described as IOSCO compliant and supported by data across dozens of platforms, thousands of data points, and the forward curve.
- Single Stock Futures Early TractionSince launch, Single Stock futures had traded a little over 350,000 contracts with approximately $3.5 billion of notional value. The offering included a 100-share multiplier across 55 large U.S. names and a 10-share multiplier across 22 names. CME reported participation across more than 50 countries, distribution through 25 top retail broker partners, and partnerships with more than 130 retail firms and several dozen FCMs.
- Single Stock Futures Institutional and Retail Use CasesManagement said institutional clients were using Single Stock futures for capital and margin efficiency, including cross-margining against CME equity index products, QIS strategies, and long-short equity models. Retail clients viewed the product as an options alternative with static deltas, no option Greeks, and no time decay. Additional FCMs were expected to come live in Q4.
- Continued Retail Client GrowthCME reported its 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit retail client acquisition growth. It welcomed well over 100,000 new retail traders during the quarter, representing a 40% increase from a year earlier. The E-nano suite also set a new record of more than 121,000 contracts traded in a single day.
- Market Data Demand and Global DiversificationMarket data growth was attributed to a diverse mix of professional subscribers, retail and simulation platforms, data feed demand, term software, pricing adjustments, policy changes, and $4.7 million of audits and catch-up payments for prior-period use. More than 50% of market data demand came from outside the United States, and CME said it continued to invest in the business.
- Large Product Launch PipelineCME reported 368 new products launched year to date, in addition to execution technology advances such as Treasury Link. Management said its technical agility and distribution partnerships supported rapid launches across institutional and retail markets, although it did not provide a new specific growth percentage attributable to new products.
- Positive Cboe and S&P Licensing EconomicsManagement said the 25-year Cboe extension of the S&P licensing agreement was economically favorable to CME through its joint venture. Potential pricing increases are expected to benefit CME beginning in 2027 rather than 2032, although the precise escalation amounts had not yet been disclosed.
- Treasury Link Testing and Client InterestTreasury Link was live in CME's new release environment, with clients testing the functionality during the week. The offering is designed to enable transparent, centralized spread trading between Treasury futures and BrokerTec cash Treasuries on CME Globex, provide guaranteed execution, and eliminate legging risk. Management reported strong demand from existing and prospective new participants.
- Expansion of Margin Savings ProgramsSwap portfolio-margining savings reached a record daily $14 billion on September 30, averaged $13.2 billion in September, and were up 58% versus September 2025. CME FICC cross-margining savings averaged $2.3 billion per day in September, with a record day of $2.7 billion. Equity savings were just under $47 billion in Q3, including just under $42 billion from base futures-and-options offsets and a little over $5 billion from the CME-OCC cross-margin agreement.
- Organic Growth in Equity Capital EfficiencyManagement said approximately 60% of the increase in equity capital-efficiency savings during 2026 came from new positions established at CME and approximately 40% from rising index levels or asset levels. Average daily open interest in OTC swap alternative products, including dividend futures, dividend options, and adjusted interest rate total return futures, grew 30% year over year to 2.6 million contracts, representing just under $500 billion of additional open interest value.
- Disciplined Capital Structure and M&A OptionalityManagement described CME's debt load as very low and said its capital structure provided flexibility for dividends, repurchases, and potential inorganic opportunities. The company said it remained selective on M&A and generally focused on opportunities that add clients or products or improve customer capital efficiency.
- Sports Futures and FutureSports Indices InitiativeCME said its newly launched NHL FutureSports indices and futures were based on team statistical performance and designed under IOSCO principles and guidelines rather than sports betting. Management identified a potential institutional market tied to the U.S. sports economy, cited an estimated $650 billion of annual U.S. sports value, and said it was developing individual-sized contracts for retail participants.
- Commitment to Market Integrity and Risk ManagementManagement emphasized that product innovation would remain anchored in market integrity, financial safeguards, and client protection. CME said it would continue launching innovative products while preserving the safety and soundness of its marketplace and maintaining rigorous risk-management frameworks.
MX:CME Earnings History
| Report Date | Fiscal Quarter | Forecast / EPS | Last Year's EPS | EPS YoY Change | Press Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 10, 2027 | 2026 (Q4) | 56.86- | 52.05 | ― | ― |
| Oct 21, 2026 | 2026 (Q3) | 56.1956.75 | 50.36 | 12.69% (+6.39) | |
| Jul 22, 2026 | 2026 (Q2) | 54.5956.19 | 55.62 | 1.01% (+0.56) | |
| Apr 22, 2026 | 2026 (Q1) | 62.8263.14 | 52.62 | 20.00% (+10.52) | |
| Feb 04, 2026 | 2025 (Q4) | 51.6652.05 | 47.36 | 9.92% (+4.70) | |
| Oct 22, 2025 | 2025 (Q3) | 49.4050.36 | 50.36 | 0.00% (+0.00) | |
| Jul 24, 2025 | 2025 (Q2) | 54.7655.62 | 48.11 | 15.63% (+7.52) | |
| Apr 23, 2025 | 2025 (Q1) | 52.6952.62 | 46.98 | 12.00% (+5.64) | |
| Feb 12, 2025 | 2024 (Q4) | 45.9747.36 | 44.54 | 6.33% (+2.82) | |
| Oct 23, 2024 | 2024 (Q3) | 49.8450.36 | 42.28 | 19.11% (+8.08) |
The table shows recent earnings report dates and whether the forecast was beat or missed. See the change in forecast and EPS from the previous year.
Beat Missed
