CME Group Reports Solid Q2 Revenues, Yet Lower QoQ

World’s largest futures exchange operator CME Group Inc (NASDAQ: CME) on Thursday published its financial results for the second quarter of 2018, which were mostly better when weighed against their 2017 equivalents, according to a CME statement.

For Q2 2018, revealed that revenues were pointed higher compared to a year earlier, coming in at $1.06 billion, up 14.5 percent from $925 million in the Q2 2017.

CME’s total operating income for Q2 2018 yielded a profit of $667 million – this represents an increase of 10 percent year-on-year from $605.6 million in 2017.

Another area of strength for the quarter was the group’s earnings per share (EPS), which rose to $1.66 in Q2 2018, up 36 percent year-on-year from $1.22 in the same period a year earlier.

Net income for Q2 2018 was also up year-on-year by a factor of 36.4 percent after recording $566 million compared to $415 million in Q2 2017. On an adjusted basis, net income was $591 million, and diluted earnings per share were $1.74.

The group’s solid second quarter financial performance was driven by the second highest quarterly average daily volume to date, including record volumes in energy, and overall options and electronic options trading.

CME has notched growth across most of its six product lines in Q2 2018. The standout performance showed an average daily volume of 18.4 million contracts, which correlates to a gain of 12 percent year-on-year. But in terms of its overall volume for Q2 2018,  reported a fall of 17 percent quarter-over-quarter from 22.2 million contracts per day in the Jan-March quarter.

CME Pushes into Cryptocurrency

Like other exchange operators, CME booked gains in  after global equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities markets were roiled by an increase in volatility in February that extended into March.

Meanwhile, CME has been looking to develop its cryptocurrency and non-trading related businesses such as its market data and information services. Most recently, it announced plans to provide a real-time .

Earlier in May, the CME Group made headlines after the exchange operator reached ‎a landmark deal to  in a transaction valued at £‎3.80 billion ($5.35 billion).

Commenting on the results, CME Group’s CEO Terry Duffy, said: “With double-digit growth in five of our six asset classes, Q2 2018 was our second best quarter ever in average daily volume, following record performance in the first quarter of 2018. We continued to see strong global growth as our trading volume increased 30 percent in Asia and 9 percent in Europe.  Total revenue grew 15 percent and, along with our continued focus on expense discipline, resulted in margin expansion and an adjusted earnings per share increase of more than 40 percent.”

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