CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) released its earnings numbers for the three months through September this morning before the market opened. The company showed earnings per share of 75 cents for the third quarter of the year. Revenue came in at $714.6 million. On today’s market shares in the company slid by more than 1%.
In the run-up to this morning’s release, 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg put a projected earnings of 73 cents per share from this morning’s earnings report by consensus. The analysts were looking for revenue totaling $712 million. In the same three months of 2012 the company managed to earn 70 cent per share on revenue totaling $683 million.
CME earnings
Despite the beat on expectations in this morning’s earnings report, the market was not all that happy with the release. The beat was related to growing trading volume, but a certain amount of it resulted from a better than expected tax situation in the third quarter of the year. If the results are adjusted for taxes, today’s release wasn’t all that positive.
4 cents per share of the earnings are attributable to the change in tax. The company’s effective tax rate fell to 35.6%. Analysts were looking for a tax rate of over 38%. 2013 has been a good year for CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME), but there are problems for the company as well as opportunities.
CME performance
Investors in CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) have seen their holdings grow considerably since 2013 began. Shares in the company have increased by more than 45% since the year began, and that has resulted in a high valuation. Stock in the company is currently trading at more than 26 times 2012 earnings, pricing in a good deal of growth.
Since the market became entranced by Taper Talk, shares in CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) have slowed down. The company’s stock gained more than 50% through the middle of July, but has traded flat through the second half of the year. The company is currently trying to register as a Swap Execution Facility.
The swaps will open up new opportunities for CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME), but there is already a large amount of growth priced into the company’s shares. Investors will need to see numbers better than this morning’s if they are going to drive the price of the company’s stock upward.
