CBOE

Image source: The Motley Fool. Friday, July 31, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET Chief Executive Officer - Craig Donohue Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer - Jill Griebenow Head of Investor Relations - Ken Hill Head of Enterprise Strategy and Corporate Development - Prashant Bhatia Global Head of Equities and Spot Markets - Heidi Fischer Global Head of Derivatives - Rob Hocking Chief Operating Officer - Scott Johnston Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] Operator: Thank you for standing by, welcome to the Cboe Global Markets second quarter earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Ken Hill, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin. Ken Hill: Good morning, thank you for joining us for our second quarter earnings conference call. On the call today, Craig Donohue, our CEO, will discuss our performance for the quarter and provide an update on our strategic outlook. Jill Griebenow, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide an overview of our financial results for the quarter, as well as discuss updates to our 2026 financial guidance. Following their comments, we will open the call to Q&A. Also joining us for Q&A will be Prashant Bhatia, our Head of Enterprise Strategy and Corporate Development, Heidi Fischer, our Global Head of Equities and Spot Markets, Rob Hocking, our Global Head of Derivatives, and Scott Johnston, our Chief Operating Officer. I would like to point out that this presentation will include the use of slides. We'll be showing the slides and providing commentary on each. A downloadable copy of the slide presentation is available on the Investor Relations portion of the website. During our remarks, we will make certain forward-looking statements which represent our current judgment for what the future may hold. While we believe these judgments are reasonable, these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Please refer to our filings with the SEC for a full discussion of the factors that may affect any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after this conference call. During the call today, we'll be referring to non-GAAP measures as defined and reconciled in our earnings material. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Craig. Craig Donohue: Good morning, and thank you for joining us to review our second quarter results. Cboe delivered another quarter of record net revenue and strong adjusted earnings with all of our core businesses continuing to deliver exceptional performance. From this position of strength, we're turning our attention to the many opportunities for growth ahead. I'll share some high-level comments before handing the call over to Jill for a financial update. During the second quarter, Cboe grew net revenue 25% year-over-year to a record $732 million, and adjusted diluted EPS increased a robust 45% to $3.56. The strong execution during the second quarter was again broad-based, driven by double-digit net revenue growth in every major category at Cboe, and year-over-year net revenue growth in all five of our company segments. Beginning with our derivatives business, we delivered another record quarter with net revenue increasing to $413 million, up 30% year-over-year. Index options drove the upside, setting another quarterly record, with average daily volume increasing 32% year-over-year to 6.2 million contracts. The quarter marked several product-specific ADV records, with 5.1 million SPX options, 3.1 million SPX 0DTE options, 195,000 Mini-SPX options, and 189,000 contracts traded during Global Trading Hours. During the quarter, SPX option volumes increased 40% year-over-year on the back of elevated economic uncertainty and stronger retail engagement. As geopolitical tensions eased in April and May, investors gravitated to longer-dated options to reposition their portfolios, particularly through the use of upside calls to participate in the market rally. In June, we saw a notable increase in retail volume following the repeal of the pattern day trader rule, which had limited how often smaller accounts could trade without triggering additional restrictions. Its removal has eliminated a friction point, making it easier for smaller retail accounts to trade products like 0DTE more frequently. The impact of the repeal was immediate, with SPX 0DTE ADV increasing 11% month-over-month in June, with the estimated retail share of that volume rising to 57% versus 53% in April and May. Stronger retail engagement is also evident in the outsized growth in our Mini-SPX contract, with ADV surging 37% from May to June and more than 80% year-over-year in Q2. We anticipate the continued adoption of the pattern day trader rules across our broker-dealer partners in the months ahead will be a tailwind for volumes and retail investors alike. Options continue to play a critical role in today's markets, offering a distinct risk and return profile compared to linear derivative products like single-stock futures and perpetual futures. Futures give investors direct exposure to the underlying along with leverage, but introduce unbounded downside risk, deferring liquidation mechanics, and funding rate uncertainty depending on the product. We do not view options as a substitute for linear derivatives, but as a different tool entirely. Investors can define their maximum loss upfront while still participating in outsized upside. That combination of convexity and defined risk is among the reasons why the vast majority of 0DTE options trading today happens in capped-risk structures. Beyond expressing directional views, options can also be used for income generation, portfolio hedging, and volatility management, making them among the most versatile tools available to investors. We believe these distinctions help explain why SPX 0DTE trading has sustained strong growth across different market cycles and volatility regimes. As we look to extend our traditional options business, we're building something we believe will define the next chapter of growth at Cboe, a suite of solutions in the event and prediction market space. In June, we launched Cboe Predicts, our binary options on the Mini-S&P 500 Index. The feedback reinforces something we've long believed, there is demand for simple outcome-based ways to engage with markets that have traditionally felt out of reach for many investors. To meet that demand, we're drawing on the trusted market infrastructure and deep liquidity that have defined our options franchise for decades to develop simple, intuitive products that appeal to a broader set of investors. Over time, we expect many of these traders to build familiarity and confidence in basic risk management concepts and progress into more sophisticated strategies like options spread trading. We also see a compelling opportunity in contracts tied to company-specific performance metrics. We've taken the first step by filing with the SEC in July to list these products with an initial focus on 23 of the most actively traded U.S. companies. That filing remains subject to regulatory approval that we see a variety of use cases that span both our institutional and retail customer bases for these products. What sets this product apart from competitors is the structure. We firmly believe these are securities products that should be overseen by the SEC and built within a framework of transparency and investor protection, one that Cboe has helped shape for more than 50 years. That regulatory foundation is exactly why we believe we're the right operator to bring this to market. A key enabler for the expansion of our global derivatives franchise, including our event and prediction market build-out, is our continued investment in global clearing. We filed an application for temporary registration with the SEC as a covered clearing agency with full registration targeted at the end of an 18-month period, subject to regulatory approval. On the CFTC side, we became subject to Subpart C of CFTC regulations effective June 16th, which means we will be held to the same enhanced credential standards consistent with global regulatory standards that apply to systemically important clearinghouses. Together, our SEC temporary registration application and Subpart C compliance support our treatment as a qualifying central counterparty under the U.S. Bank Capital rules, which reduces capital requirements for clearing members. Our SEC filing, if approved, will help us better innovate in options and expand our futures offerings backed by a vertically integrated stack of trading and clearing. Our clearing efforts are designed to be complementary to our longstanding partnership with OCC. We remain fully committed to the existing market structure and the OCC clearing model for existing equity options. Moving to cash and spot markets, net revenue grew 22% year-over-year with steady growth across Europe and Asia-Pacific and Global FX, and record revenues in our North American equities segment. Global FX net revenue increased 17% year-over-year in the second quarter, driven by continued gains in average daily notional value and net capture. In Europe and Asia-Pacific, net revenues increased 20% year-over-year or 18% on a constant currency basis. This was driven by 31% year-over-year growth in net transaction and clearing fees, reflecting stronger industry volumes and improved net capture even as market share eased slightly versus the prior year quarter. Cboe's North American equities business made a strong contribution as well, delivering record net revenue for the segment with net transaction and clearing fees up 37% on the back of stronger industry volumes and improved net capture rates. As we look ahead, the cash equities business is one of the most dynamic asset classes in the world today, and Cboe is at the forefront as the industry embraces innovations that are reshaping how and when markets operate. We're excited to expand cash equities trading to a 23 by five basis planned for this December, pending industry readiness with an eye toward 24/7 over time. That shift will give investors greater flexibility to manage risk and access liquidity whenever they need it. Against that backdrop, we're supportive of the commission taking a fresh look at market structure that has evolved significantly over the past two decades through its proposed rescission of Rule 611. Cboe is the only exchange group that operates both registered lit exchanges and an ATS. We believe this uniquely positions Cboe to be a leader in combining the best elements of the various market models that equity market participants demand. Turning now to Data Vantage, net revenue increased 15% year-over-year. Growth was again broad-based, with market data and access services, Cboe Global Indices, and risk and market analytics all posting double-digit gains on strong new unit and new subscription trends. Over the past year, we've repositioned Cboe to better allocate our time, effort, and resources toward our core businesses and the areas with the greatest potential for growth. That repositioning has aligned us more directly with the most powerful secular trends in our industry, the continued dominance of the U.S. equity marketplace, the growing role of retail investors globally, and the secular rise in options trading. The U.S. equity market remains the bedrock of global capital, with market cap surging past $75 trillion in June of this year, roughly half of all global equity value, up from just 27% two decades ago. The S&P 500 sits at the heart of that dominance. The latest figures show more than $20 trillion indexed or benchmarked to it globally, more than the equity market cap of any country outside the U.S. Our proprietary index business has captured that momentum directly with Cboe's SPX options ADV growing roughly 30% annually since 2021. With U.S. household financial assets growing by 6% annually for more than the last three decades, retail is playing a bigger role than ever in the markets. At Cboe, we remain focused on giving investors the access, tools, and educational resources they need to participate confidently. Cboe pioneered options education, and our Options Institute continues to see strong demand with class registrations up 173% quarter-over-quarter in Q2. We believe that demand for education, greater access, and the utility options provide has fueled robust growth. That growth shows up clearly in the numbers. U.S. options stand out as one of the fastest-growing asset classes on pace for a seventh straight record year in 2026. Daily volume through the second quarter averaged nearly 71 million contracts, with a single-day high above 110 million contracts recorded in the past year. Overall, options growth has accelerated to over 20% annually since 2019, more than tripling volumes in seven years. These trends aren't independent tailwinds. They compound, and we believe Cboe is well-positioned at the center of all three, positioned to turn them into long-term shareholder growth. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jill to walk through our financial highlights for the second quarter and updates to our 2026 guidance. Jill Griebenow: Thanks, Craig. Cboe delivered record net revenue in the second quarter, while adjusted diluted earnings per share rose 45% year-over-year to $3.56. Before turning to the segment results, I'll walk through a few high-level takeaways from the quarter. Net revenue increased 25% versus the second quarter of 2025, finishing at a record $732 million. We again saw strong double-digit growth in all categories led by our derivatives business. Specifically, derivatives net revenue increased 30% with strength across our proprietary index options and multi-list products powering the category's performance. Cash and spot markets net revenue rose 22%, fueled by strong industry volumes. Data Vantage net revenue was up 15% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating expenses came in at $217 million, up 2% year-over-year, while adjusted operating EBITDA grew 37% to $528 million. Adjusted operating EBITDA margin expanded 6.4 percentage points to 72.2% in the second quarter, reflecting both our strong revenue performance and continued expense discipline. Turning to the key drivers of the quarter by segment. Our press release and the appendix of our slide deck include information detailing the key metrics for our business segments. I'll provide some highlights for each. Options delivered yet another record quarter, with net revenue up 30% year-over-year, driven by a 33% increase in net transaction and clearing fees. Total options ADV climbed 26%, including a 32% increase in index options volume and a 24% increase in multi-list options volume. The revenue per contract for our options business rose 6% year-over-year, a result of continued mix shift towards index options, coupled with a 3% increase in the index options rate per contract. North American Equities net revenue was up 17% versus the second quarter of 2025, as strong industry volumes drove a 37% increase in net transaction and clearing fees, with market data fees and access and capacity fees also contributing to the gain. Europe and APAC net revenue was up 20% year-over-year, or 18% on a constant currency basis, with net transaction and clearing fees up 31% and non-transaction revenues up a combined 9%. Futures net revenue was up 2% from the second quarter of 2025, primarily on higher market data fees, while transaction and clearing fees held steady. Global FX rounded out the segment results with net revenue up 17% year-over-year, driven by an 8% increase in average daily notional value and a 6% increase in net capture. Looking at our Cboe Data Vantage business, net revenues increased by 15% compared to the second quarter of 2025. New subscription and unit sales continued to drive revenue growth, representing approximately 84% of the quarter's growth, with the remainder coming from pricing changes. Sales trends also reflected strong international demand, with 50% of the quarter's sales coming from customers outside the U.S. Overall, we're very pleased with the composition of growth and trends within our Data Vantage business. On the expense side, total adjusted operating expenses came in at $217 million, up 2% year-over-year, primarily reflecting disciplined expense management against a higher bonus accrual as a result of our strong operating performance, along with increased travel and promotional expenditure. Turning now to our 2026 guidance. As we discussed on our first quarter call, in April, we signed a definitive agreement to sell Cboe Canada and Cboe Australia. We'll continue operating both entities until close, each subject to its own closing conditions and regulatory approval. Today, we're updating our assumptions to reflect an expected third quarter close for the sale of Cboe Australia. For consistency, we'll provide organic net revenue growth metrics that exclude the impact of the Cboe Australia sale, and we'll also break out the absolute dollar impact separately for modeling purposes. Cboe Canada will remain part of our ongoing 2026 guidance until we have more clarity as to the exact timing for closing. We now expect Cboe total organic net revenue growth in 2026 to be in the mid-to-high teens range, up from last quarter's low double-digit to mid-teens guidance. We estimate Cboe Australia contributed approximately $20 million in net revenue through July. Factoring in the loss of future revenue, assuming a third-quarter sale, we still expect total net revenue growth to finish in the mid-to-high teens range for 2026. On Data Vantage, we now expect 2026 organic net revenue growth in the low teens range, up from last quarter's low double-digit guidance. We estimate Cboe Australia contributed approximately $17 million in Data Vantage net revenue through July. Factoring in the loss of future revenue, assuming a third quarter sale, we expect Data Vantage net revenue growth to finish in the low double-digit range for 2026. Turning to expenses, our adjusted operating expense guidance holds at $838 million-$853 million for 2026, despite several moving pieces. Our estimate reflects higher incentive compensation expenses, given our strong year-to-date operating performance, increased return-to-office costs, and incremental investment in high-growth potential areas, as outlined in Craig's prepared remarks. Offsetting the higher expense piece is an $11 million reduction in our expectations for 2026, tied to the expected third quarter close of the Cboe Australia sale. I would note that while a majority of expenses associated with Cboe Australia will end at the time of the sale, we will continue providing transition support and incurring some related expense for up to 12 months following the close of the transaction, subject to operational readiness. These incremental costs are reflected in our updated guidance. Lastly, we continue to expect $40 million-$50 million in annualized expense savings from the strategic realignment actions outlined last quarter, with $20 million-$25 million still expected to hit in 2026. Rounding out our 2026 guidance, our CapEx guidance increases to $98 million-$108 million, from $73 million-$83 million, as we made incremental investment in our clearing infrastructure and opportunistically pulled forward hardware purchases for future service to lock in lower costs ahead of rising inflationary pressure in the space. Depreciation and amortization expenses decreased to $54 million-$58 million, from $56 million-$60 million, reflecting the later in-service timing of certain accelerated purchases. We continue to expect a full-year effective tax rate on adjusted earnings of 27.5%-29.5% under current tax laws. While we don't formally guide to interest income or expense, we expect Net Interest Income net of expense, to contribute $8 million-$9 million positively in the third quarter, given higher cash balances. Turning to capital allocation, we continued our opportunistic share repurchase activity during the quarter, buying back $33 million of Cboe shares. Combined with a $76 million dividend payment of $0.72 per share, we returned a total of $108 million to shareholders in the second quarter. While we recognized that there was meaningful volatility in our share price during the second quarter, the most notable declines occurred in the final weeks of June, a period during which, consistent with standard practice around quarter-end reporting, our ability to transact in the open market is more limited outside of our 10b5-1. Had we had greater flexibility in the open market, we would have welcomed the opportunity to be more aggressive, particularly given what we viewed as a notable discount in the stock, supported by our strong cash position and continued confidence in the long-term value of the business. Thinking about capital allocation more holistically, we are mindful of upcoming capital needs, including the $650 million debt tranche maturing in the first quarter of 2027, which we currently expect to repay with cash on hand. We will continue to evaluate opportunities to repurchase shares pursuant to our share repurchase program based on our share price, our trading window, and other capital deployment priorities, including this upcoming debt repayment. We continue to maintain significant balance sheet flexibility with adjusted cash of $2.3 billion and a leverage ratio of 0.7x. That strong financial position gives us the capacity to pursue organic or inorganic growth opportunities while continuing to return capital to shareholders through dividends and opportunistic share repurchases. With that, I'd like to hand it back to Craig for closing comments. Craig Donohue: Thank you, Jill. Last quarter, I laid out the decisive steps we were taking to reposition Cboe for greater success. More recently, we rounded out our executive leadership team, adding Heidi Fischer as Global Head of Equities and Spot Markets. She joined us in June and is with us today on the call. The 2Q results show that we're delivering on that strategy, continuing to sharpen our portfolio, simplify our structure, and build a stronger foundation for our core businesses. As an organization, we must now take the next step and shift our focus to the growth opportunities ahead. With some of the most powerful secular trends in the industry at our back, my comments today give you a preview of some of the tangible initiatives we have underway to help drive new potential sources of revenue growth at Cboe. Our derivatives franchise remains incredibly strong, setting multiple records to start 2026, a foundation we'll leverage as we push into the related category of event contracts. With the launch of Cboe Predicts and our filing to bring company KPI products to market, backed by clearing capabilities we're building out at Cboe Clear U.S., we believe Cboe is best positioned to capture this opportunity set. In cash equities, we're moving toward 23x5, pending industry readiness, and eventually 24x7 as market structure evolves. In Data Vantage, we look to keep bringing new products to market to meet our customers' data and access needs. We're moving into this next phase with speed, conviction, and a clear sense of where we can win. I remain genuinely excited about Cboe's future, and I look forward to delivering on that opportunity in the quarters ahead. At this point, we'll open the line for questions. To allow time for everyone, please limit yourself to one question per person. Feel free to reenter the queue, and if time permits, we'll take a second question. Operator: Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. As a reminder, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question. You may re-queue for additional questions. Your first question comes from a line of Ben Budish from Barclays. Your line is open. Ben Budish: Hey. Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. Maybe just on the high-level retail commentary, Craig, you talked a lot about the retail strength you've seen, a lot about why options are different from perps. If you were to sum it up, there's a lot of instances where perps are an inappropriate replacement or can't at all do what options do. How would you sum up maybe the bits of volume where there is potential overlap, maybe like single-leg calls and puts versus the more sophisticated strategies? Then how would you describe the retail-- I know there's a lot of talk about retail, pro-tail. As the retail trend has continued to be quite strong, how would you describe that current mix between more sophisticated, less sophisticated, and any color there would be helpful. Thank you. Craig Donohue: Yeah, sure. I'll probably let Rob get into more of the detail of that, but I think it's really important to focus on, because you referenced perpetuals, we have a much broader ecosystem, a much broader distribution base, and a much broader, ultimately, customer base that I think we can tap into in the equity markets and in the equity derivative markets, just in terms of the sheer number of accounts and market participants in the retail segment than exists on the futures side. I think that's a key differentiator. I'll let Rob talk about a lot of the more technical distinctions that exist between the products. Rob Hocking: Yeah, thanks, Craig. Thanks for the question, Ben. I think perpetual futures are really arguably one of the more successful products that's come out of the crypto markets, but I think it's important to really look at their history to better understand the use case. Perps emerged because traders wanted really the simplicity of trading underlying digital assets, but with leverage and the ability to easily go short. Traditional futures accomplished this, but they added friction, they added cost from having to continually roll the positions. Perps effectively bridged that gap between spot trading and that leveraged futures exposure. I think it's important to recognize that perpetuals and SPX options really, and Craig mentioned it in the prepared remarks, fundamentally different investor needs. Perps offer no expiration date, so you can hold an underlying position indefinitely. This really is contrary to 0DTE contracts that expire the day you trade them. Perps do provide leverage, but it's in the form of linear exposure so that the market moves, whether it's for or more importantly against your position, gains and losses move proportionally, and the amount of leverage offered really just dictates how quickly your gains and losses move. Options, as we've mentioned, offer that convexity and really that defined risk exposure. Investors, as we've said, tailor views around direction, but really volatility market events, income generations, really in ways that simply are not able to be replicated in the futures market. Even on the 0DTE front, over 95% of the trades we see are defined risk strategies. With 50%-55% of those being spreads. Whether the strategy itself is the same customer, the end result and the use case is really very different because you don't have that defined risk aspect in the futures market. Let's not forget, this dynamic has really worked well for decades. Investors have had access to futures on the S&P 500, yet demand for SPX options really continue to grow because of that different risk-return profile. While you point out there could be some overlap in the active trading communities, we really view perps as a complementary product to the options ecosystem rather than a direct substitute. Quite frankly, where it's appropriate, we may look to expand our continuous futures offering, where there's demand to do so. Ben Budish: Okay, great. Thank you so much for all that. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Moley from Piper Sandler. Your line is open. Patrick Moley: Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask on the company KPI event contracts that were filed with the SEC in July, 23 names, September launch. Could you update us on how your conversations with market participants have gone around those products? What does demand look like? Who are the end users? And then is there any revenue from those new products that you're baking into your second half guidance? Thanks. Rob Hocking: Yeah, thank you. I can kick that one off and then hand it over to Jill. We continue to view the event prediction markets really as an exciting area and a natural extension of our derivatives business. At a high level, the risks that are traded through things like our XSP binaries and our proposed company-specific KPI contracts really are very consistent with the kinds of products we've been bringing to the market for more than, call it 50 years. They provide investors really, and it's important, ways to express their expectations in tradable exposures. We were excited to get XSP, the yes/no contract, out the door on June 15th. We're in the early days of the launch, but encouraged with the level of engagement by the market. We currently have three different market makers providing liquidity in the product and spreads continue to narrow as really the liquidity grows. We've also been working very closely with Schwab as an anchor tenant and are extremely excited that they just reported they'll begin offering these contracts on their platform to clients very soon. Looking forward, you heard in Craig's prepared remarks, we filed for both the company-specific KPI event contracts as well as the ability to clear those on Cboe Clear U.S. Thus far, Cboe's product franchise has really been good at providing tools to manage risk and trade at the index level, the sector level, and even the individual company stock level. When the company-specific KPI contracts provide is really the ability to go even more granular to trade and manage the individual components that drive the company's stock value. For example, think in NVIDIA's data center revenue, think Microsoft's cloud-based revenue. Today's markets consistently reference predictions, and we think having liquid markets around investors' expectations for these metrics will further drive better insights into, call it, company performance, better ability to manage risk at that component level. We anticipate adoption of these contracts to follow a similar path to how 0DTE developed, with the market starting heavily weighted towards retail investors. As the historical data sets grow and more analysis becomes available, we believe institutions will get more involved. Given the correlation between these metrics and their impact on stock valuation, we believe that'll help institutions better manage risk really across single name portfolios. We continue to work really closely with the whole industry, both retail and institutional, and of course the SEC, to ensure, if approved, these products are brought to market really with the same rigor investor protections afforded to investors today, which we think is very important. On the company-specific side, we're targeting a second half of September, early October launch, pending regulatory approval, of course. Really big picture, the demand is there. The idea of getting more granular in how you can trade the individual components that drive valuation is there, and we're kind of excited about both the practical application for retail to trade these as they're trading in that event prediction space today as well as institutions getting involved that can really drive a healthy market quality. Jill Griebenow: Thanks. Just picking up on the guidance piece, we haven't incorporated anything notable into the forward-looking guidance for 2026 related to this. I mean, to Rob's comments, still early days. We will definitely keep our eyes on this, come back to you in late October with our final quarter update for the year. Just want to note the dial-up that we've done on the total net revenue growth rate for the high teens this time around. That is more reflective of, let's call it, our existing product base set there. It doesn't incorporate anything incremental from this. Patrick Moley: Great. Thank you for that. Operator: Your next question comes from a line of Brian Bedell from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Brian Bedell: Great. Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Actually, just wanted to follow up on the company KPI question. Just on the SEC approval process, just your level of confidence in getting that approved by the end of the third quarter. Are they going to put then any comments out for a proposal that would be commented on in the industry, or do you anticipate it would be directly approved? Does the CFTC need to be involved at all, or is it just SEC? Have you thought about pricing on these types of contracts in terms of, will they be priced more like your proprietary options or closer to the multi-listed options? Craig Donohue: Thanks, Brian. Appreciate your question. On the first part of your question, we have been working obviously closely with the SEC commission staff on this filing well prior to actually making the filing. Can't really comment on how the timing will turn out. That's within more their control. We would say that we think the process is going very well and smoothly. In terms of the other aspect of your question, it is open for comment. I believe that comment period will end next Wednesday. We'll continue to look at industry commentary. I would think that there's a close level of cooperation between the SEC and the CFTC, so I'm sure that's something that is an ongoing discussion with them. We've obviously done a tremendous amount of work and have a strong point of view that these are securities that are subject to the jurisdiction of the SEC. From our perspective, it's going well, but we can never be definitive about what the actual timing of the regulatory approval would be. We think it's gone very smoothly so far. Rob Hocking: Yeah, I would add, as of right now, we haven't seen any comments submitted yet, but we're obviously watching closely. On the pricing front, we are still in that exercise right now, but I think you can think of these more closely aligned to other event prediction market contracts on the market. We think we can be very competitive. The reason I say that is the notional value of an SPX contract is so big with the 100 multiplier and the index size compared to these event contracts, and specifically the KPI ones, where you're looking at effectively a $1 yes or no contract. To equate that, we're looking at what are the alternatives, what are the other products on the market, and how can we price these to remain competitive? We think we have the dials to do so. Brian Bedell: Great. Thank you. Operator: Your next question comes from a line of Jeff Schmitt from William Blair. Your line is open. Jeff Schmitt: Hi, good morning. As you move from index-based event contracts into company KPI contracts, what will you need to do to drive adoption there? Kind of a different animal, obviously, and demand in prediction markets is still sort of dominated by sports contracts today. What will you do to drive adoption there? Rob Hocking: Yeah, thanks, Jeff. That's a great question. In some regards, this is where our intermediated model, I think, is very strong. We're relying on the various retail broker platforms, think Robinhood, Schwab, Webull, the likes, tastytrade, really having them. They're seeing the demand come in very strong from their customer base, we want to deliver the product. We want to deliver a seamless user experience, much like trading multi-list options today, almost adding this as just another SKU to our shelves, allow them to position it, allow them with their GUIs and user interfaces, how to position the yes/no event style contracts within their platform. The nice thing is, the encouraging thing is, the demand is coming from those platforms. I would say historically in product development at the exchange, a lot of times we develop the product are trying to get the platforms to launch them, trying to market those products to the customers. This is actually happening more in reverse. We are getting the inbound saying, "We have massive demand from our retail client base for these. We need a solution, we need a solution specifically on the security side," which we view as really kind of our competitive advantage to the other existing event contracts and prediction markets that are out there today. Jeff Schmitt: Okay. Thank you. Operator: Your next question comes from a line of Michael Cyprys from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Michael Cyprys: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Quarterly earnings have become one of the largest recurring catalysts for both equities and options activity across the markets. If the SEC moves to semi-annual reporting, how would that affect options usage and retail engagement? What might be some second or third order effects from that sort of potential change on liquidity, price discovery, and volatility in overall market participation? Craig Donohue: Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's. It's hard to really speculate exactly how that will play out. Arguably, options and 0DTE are being used daily to trade around different movements in the market. Even though the kind of event regularity or the known events on the landscape would change in frequency, I still think there's enough dynamics of day-to-day movements, day-to-day announcements, day-to-day evolutions of the market space where you'll still see people positioning using options around those. We'll have to react to it. I think even on the event and prediction space, this is a nice hedge for if something like that were to go in that direction, because, yes, you have your revenue or your earnings metrics that will become less frequent, but there are plenty of other metrics and plenty of other, I would say, uncertainty in how those metrics are moving throughout the quarter that people will still have interest in trading. Jill Griebenow: Yeah. We're obviously keeping a close eye on this and there's a lot of surveys and data out there. I think our initial kind of issuer sentiment is that it's highly likely that we'd expect to see much in the way of quarterly reporting. Again, continuing to monitor this. Michael Cyprys: Great. Thank you. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Ashish Sabadra: Thanks for taking my question. A question around your clearing capabilities. Wondering if you could talk about, or provide more color on the products that you could innovate once you get that capabilities and approval to launch clearing capabilities. On the same topic, you've obviously increased your CapEx as you've invested organically, but is there also opportunity for inorganic investments, to build out those clearing capabilities? Thanks. Craig Donohue: I'll start with that. Part of the goal that we have with clearing, and remember that we have both a significant clearing presence in the European marketplace as well as Cboe Clear U.S. here. What we are thinking about mostly in terms of expansion is, in Europe, we're focused on clearing of securities finance transactions. We see a lot of future growth potential there. In the U.S. segment, we're really looking at clearing as an enabler for product innovation, market innovation, and the ability to bring products to market, at a time when there's a lot of change in the industry and a lot of opportunity, we think. We have, I think, an advantage, which is that we're a relatively small presence in the U.S. in terms of clearing. This gives us the ability to sort of innovate. As an example, and one of the reasons why we're pursuing the things that we discussed during the call, like the Subpart C election, as well as the temporary, and ultimately, hopefully, fully registered securities clearing agency, with the SEC, is that we want to be able to move quickly to introduce KPIs. Those are different instruments, than are customarily cleared at OCC. As well, as we think about moving toward 23x5, moving toward 24x7, ultimately, and as we further the work that we're doing internally right now on thinking about tokenization and on chain transactions in financial instruments, those are all things that we can do to help bring things to market. I think I made the comment earlier that this is designed to be kind of complementary to our longstanding and very valuable partnership with OCC. This is not in any way, shape, or form a departure from that. It's really just that it allows us to move more quickly and to do things that either may be different in terms of the risk profile, or risk appetite, or operational capabilities of OCC at the present time. We're always going to focus on, ultimately, as we evolve, how we can continue to work closely with OCC and find ways to benefit market participants in doing so. I think you had a second part of your question that related to investments. Scott probably could comment briefly on that, but we're clearly thinking about how to invest in not only our technology capabilities supporting clearing and settlement, but a lot of the new things that we're trying to do. I don't know if you want to add anything to that. Scott Johnston: Sure. Thanks, Craig. As we think about how to expand clearing capabilities and really support innovation, we are definitely looking across the spectrum of potential opportunities, notwithstanding things like tokenization or rails infrastructure. We're looking across the crypto markets. We're actually also looking at how to improve the innovation speed of CCUS to support the business. We're open to a lot of things. I would say we're not specifically able to talk about anything right now, but that's definitely on our minds. Ashish Sabadra: Thanks. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Alex Blostein from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Alex Blostein: Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking the question. I was hoping to broaden out the retail discussion a little bit, and you provided a number of really helpful stats to sort of think about how the end market is growing and using different products today versus prior years. As you think about the competitive landscape with sort of convergence between some of your partners, so some of the retail brokers will effectively have their own contracts, and so have more of a bit of a more like vertically integrated structure versus the traditional kind of exchange model. How do you think that will impact competition in the space? What gives Cboe ultimately the right to win, and how do you think that impacts pricing for event contracts over time? Craig Donohue: I'll start with that, Alex, and maybe Prashant or Rob might like to add something. I'm a huge believer in the value of the huge network effects that you see in all-to-all exchange and centrally cleared markets. Certainly, at low scale, I think that some of these sort of vertically integrated stacks, where you have direct customer connectivity, broker-dealer FCM exchange, and then post-trade capabilities, those can be interesting. I suppose they're particularly valuable and interesting in the gaming and gambling area. I think when you think about the scale of how those markets might develop over time, by those markets, I really mean the event predictions markets that are more focused on financial and economic events and underlying financial instruments. I don't believe that those will do well ultimately as let's call them closed silo systems, because they just don't provide the interactive capability across the entire marketplace. We'll always remain very committed to that type of structure. We think it's really important to have broad-based partnerships, not only with market makers and liquidity providers, but with distribution channel partners like broker-dealer FCMs. We think that's the long-term formula success. That's not to say that those other approaches aren't valuable or can't be successful to some degree. As we think forward in terms of if those markets are really going to grow and expand and achieve the kind of critical mass that we have in our traditional financial markets, I just think those sort of open all-to-all market structure is going to be much more valuable. Rob Hocking: The only thing I might add is the idea of risk offsets and capital efficiency. When you have those individual silos, it's hard to get or impossible to really get risk offsets across the larger ecosystem. That's something that I think our market does incredibly well, and it's proven to do incredibly well. You can hold risk traded at one location, it's fungible, and get offset for risk that's traded at another location. That ability to free up capital to provide liquidity, to transact in, there's a huge multiplier effect to that. I think that's, especially on the institutional side, you'll still see benefits to that model going forward. Prashant Bhatia: I'd also add, we still continue to see a tremendous amount of demand. Just think about the retail brokers that Rob mentioned that are accessing or interested in accessing some of the new product launches. The number of retail clients on their platforms number over 50 million. There's massive demand, and those firms do an incredibly good job at the education of new products that they put on that platform. I think we will continue to see pretty robust demand for our intermediated model. Alex Blostein: Great. Thanks very much. Operator: Your next question comes from a line of Simon Clinch from Rothschild & Co Redburn. Your line is open. Simon Clinch: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to jump back to some of the new products you're launching, the event contracts and then moving into KPIs. I'm more interested in how you're thinking about these market opportunities. Do you consider these to be large, separate adjacent market opportunities, or do you consider them more feeder opportunities into your existing core? Maybe you could expand on that and relate that to the actual retail and the type of customers that are trading. Thank you. Rob Hocking: Yeah. Thanks, Simon. Thanks for the question. I think it's really a combination of both. We've talked about on previous earning calls the idea of the Cboe product toolkit and how the toolkit is used together and the strength is in the interconnectedness of these products. When you think of SPX and VIX, this is an expansion of that. As I talked about the value chain for company-specific KPIs, you can see how NVIDIA's data center sales will feed EPS and how EPS will feed their stock price, how the stock price will feed the sector price, and so forth. When you think of that big picture, yes, we'll have retail that want to take individual positions or have individual expectations on each piece of those, each component or each piece of that valuation chain. You go back to the institutional side, they're looking at the complete value chain and how do each one of these companies fit in? How do I spread risk across a single name option portfolio? We view them collectively, holistically, and I think as we start to introduce more and more products down the road, as we look to expand that KPI product set, you can think of things like economic indicators. I hear people talk about CPI a lot. It starts to bring all of those in. CPI is going to drive stock movement, stock movement's going to drive sector movement, sector movement's going to drive index movement, and so forth. It's all very interconnected. Allows people, especially as a former liquidity provider, I'll tell you, providing liquidity tends to be a reactionary thing. You're reacting to the order flow coming in, once you react and once you make that trade, you then have inventory that you need to spread out and manage your risk. The more products that are interconnected, the more easily I can start to spread out that risk, and the more liquidity I can provide. It kind of tails into the previous question with the kind of idea of offsets and managing risk at the centralized clearing level, all the way into being able to provide liquidity on the exchange platform, and do so in a manner that allows each individual component to get the liquidity they want while you're looking kind of at the complete picture. I hope that helps. Simon Clinch: That's really useful. Thank you. Operator: Your next question comes from a line of Alex Kramm from UBS. Your line is open. Alex Kramm: Yes. Hey, good morning, everyone. I want to come back to a couple of those things. Actually, bigger picture on the proprietary products. Can you just give us an update on where we are with expansion of the customer base? What I'm trying to ask is, a couple of years ago, people were very excited when Robinhood finally came on. Where do we stand with kind of like the global expansion with other brokers around the world that want to trade particular SPX and 0DTE? Maybe related to that, how have those conversations maybe changed over the last few quarters? We spent all this call talking about new innovation and new products. As the menu of kind of opportunities changes for those intermediaries and end investors, I'm just wondering, are you still getting the same attention as you try to broaden your customer base, or are they just really, everybody's just trying to figure out, "What do I do next?" There's so much demand. Thank you. Rob Hocking: Thanks, Alex. I'll try to take this in two different directions. First, as far as the demand and even tapping into, I'll start with international demand. We still see very strong demand coming from the APAC and EMEA region. The biggest reason being is the liquidity of our core products. When you think of SPX, when you think of VIX, they want access to that liquidity and want to be able to trade and transact in that liquidity. We've been slowly adding more and more brokers. Korea's been a great success story that we've talked about in the past where, as of Q1 of 2024, we had really zero brokers online. Now we continue to expand and have, I would call the vast majority of retail brokers in Korea online. We're going to continue to, I would say, expand in those channels. The demand's coming in for our core product set. On a different front, going in a slightly different direction, I just want to use kind of the pattern day trader rule removal as an example of just how we're seeing things like that affect the demand in our products. Across the top nine retail brokers, average daily volume increased following that rule change, with SPX up almost 3.5%. XSP ADV was up over 36%. Multi-list options ADV was up almost 4%. That's on a month-over-month basis. The data set's small. The rule was just repealed, I'll call it a little over a month ago. An important signal of this is it's not just higher volume, but it's broader engagement. Simple order counts. Simple goes back to those single option trades, not spreads, not complex orders. Those rose meaningfully across the retail channel. In SPX, simple orders increased over 40%. XSP was almost 75%, and multi-list was just under 20%, signaling that kind of higher churn rate in retail participation and the demand to trade more frequently. At the same time, average order sizes generally declined. That suggested growth is really being driven by a large number of smaller customer orders rather than this narrow set of just large trades. The largest changes were concentrated at the zero to low-cost retail broker platforms, especially platforms like you had mentioned, Robinhood, Webull's another one. Using their publicly available data, Robinhood's June options ADV increased over 30% from May and almost 80% year-over-year, while Webull's increased 36% month-over-month and 100% year-over-year. This is encouraging data. We're seeing people that want to interact with the products, want to interact with the platform much more frequently. We've talked about it before. Liquidity grows liquidity. Demand grows demand. You see that as people rush into the products and want to transact. It only gets stronger. The spreads only tighten, we're very encouraged by how the market is evolving, all of these data points and kind of the continued growth on the horizon. Operator: Your final question comes from a line of Dan Fannon from Jefferies. Your line is open. Dan Fannon: Thanks. Wanted to just ask about Data Vantage growth, which obviously continues to be quite strong, and just how to think about some of the drivers here that have been so prevalent in 2026 and thinking about into next year and the sustainability of some of them. Prashant Bhatia: Just in terms of Data Vantage, if you look at our growth, we had revenue of about $178 million this quarter. That was up 15% year-over-year. About two-thirds of that growth was driven by higher access-related revenue, and the majority of that access-related revenue really came from increased connectivity and demand for increased connectivity to our options exchanges, right? When you look at our multi-list options volume, we were up 24% year-over-year, and our SPX options volume was up 40% year-over-year. That drove that demand. The other third came from continued growth in our market data. When you look at it, we're seeing strong demand for both our U.S. and European proprietary data sets, and about 50% of data sales came from clients outside of the U.S. You heard Rob talk about the growth we're seeing in Asia, and that, again, we're seeing that across all of our data sets. More demand for Asian investors that want to invest in the U.S., and their brokerage firms are looking at our market data across the board. That goes across equities, options, and our index market data. We're seeing broad-based support there. We've got good momentum on the Data Vantage side. When it comes to 2027, we'll address that towards the end of the year when we give you guidance for 2027. Dan Fannon: Thank you. Operator: That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to the management team for some final closing remarks. Craig Donohue: Great. Thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us today, and we look forward to seeing you next quarter. Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Cboe Global Markets, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Cboe Global Markets wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool recommends Cboe Global Markets. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Cboe (CBOE) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in TMX Group Limited? Here are five stocks we like better. TMX Group delivered strong Q2 results: Revenue rose 16% to C$487.5 million, adjusted diluted EPS increased 19%, and all major business segments posted double-digit growth. Capital markets and data businesses gained momentum: First-half capital raised climbed 51%, new listings increased 44% to 251, derivatives volumes rose 18% in Q2, and Global Insights revenue grew 18%, helped by acquisitions and higher indexing assets. TMX is expanding through acquisitions and investments: It plans to invest about US$800 million in the proposed MEMX-BOX combination for an expected 59% stake, while also advancing RAFI Indices and Cboe-related transactions; the board approved an 8% dividend increase to C$0.26 per share. TMX Group (TSE:X) reported double-digit revenue growth across its businesses in the second quarter and first half of 2026, while outlining a series of acquisitions and investments intended to expand its presence in global exchange, data and indexing markets. Chief Executive Officer John McKenzie said the company’s first-half results reflected “balanced strength” across transaction-based and recurring-revenue businesses. Total revenue rose 16% in the first six months of 2026, while organic revenue, excluding acquisitions completed in 2025, increased 14%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 27% for the period. → Microsoft Just Flipped the AI Spending Narrative Overnight For the second quarter, TMX reported revenue of C$487.5 million, up 16% from a year earlier. Chief Financial Officer David Arnold said the company delivered its eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in both total and organic revenue. Adjusted diluted earnings per share rose 19%, supported by a C$35 million, or 18%, increase in income from operations. Reported diluted earnings per share increased 96%, which Arnold said also reflected a non-cash foreign-exchange accounting gain on U.S.-dollar intercompany loans, compared with a loss in the prior-year period. Global Insights segment revenue increased 18% in the quarter. Derivatives Trading and Clearing revenue rose 15%. Equities and Fixed Income Trading and Clearing revenue increased 13%. Capital Formation revenue grew, led by higher listing activity and corporate services revenue. → 2 Unique Space ETFs That Could Upend the Industry Operating expenses increased 13% in the second quarter. The increase included C$15.6 million in acquisition-related expenses tied to ETF Stream, Verity and nuclear-sector index acquisitions, along with integration expenses and acquired-intangible amortization. Excluding acquisition-related items, litigation-related costs and prior-year strategic realignment expenses, comparable operating expenses increased about 10%, largely due to compensation, headcount, technology investments and certain non-cash items. McKenzie said Capital Formation revenue increased 20% in the first half, driven by listing fees and TSX Trust. Capital raised increased 51% in the first six months, led by corporate financings in the mining sector. TSX Venture equity capital raised totaled C$6.9 billion, up 108% from a year earlier. → MarketBeat Week in Review – 07/27- 07/31 The company added 251 new listings during the first half, a 44% increase from the comparable period. McKenzie highlighted several initial public offerings, including Apotex’s C$1.5 billion June IPO, which he described as the largest life-science IPO in Canadian history, and Lumina Metals’ C$406 million IPO. Revenue from Equities and Fixed Income Trading increased 25% in the first half, as combined volumes rose 32%. In the second quarter, equities and fixed-income trading revenue rose 16%, while clearing revenue increased 9%. Equities market volumes increased 15%, including gains of 17% on the TSX and 25% on TSX Venture. Alpha volumes declined 25%. TMX’s combined market share for TSX- and TSX Venture-listed securities was approximately 59% in the quarter, down 3% from the prior-year period. Arnold said a lower proportion of higher-yielding auction trading relative to continuous trading affected revenue capture. Derivatives Trading and Clearing revenue increased 23% in the second quarter, as derivatives trading volumes rose 18%. Montréal Exchange average daily volume reached 1.1 million contracts in the first half, while total open interest set a record of 35.6 million contracts on June 18. Within Global Insights, TMX VettaFi revenue rose 40% in Canadian dollars, including C$4.1 million from recent acquisitions. Excluding those acquired businesses, revenue increased 29%, supported by growth in assets under indexing. Assets under indexing finished the quarter just below $90 billion. TMX Datalinx revenue increased 22%, including a C$8.2 million contribution from Verity. TMX Trayport revenue growth was affected by lower non-recurring consulting revenue compared with the prior-year quarter, though recurring revenue expanded 8% and its annual recurring revenue reached C$293.5 million. TMX also announced a strategic investment in the proposed combination of U.S. exchanges MEMX and BOX, which would create MEMX Group. TMX plans to contribute approximately US$800 million in cash and its existing BOX ownership stake. Following the transaction’s closing, expected in the second half of 2027 subject to regulatory approvals, TMX expects to own approximately 59% of the combined entity. The overall transaction values MEMX Group at approximately US$2.3 billion. Arnold said MEMX and BOX generated combined 2025 revenue of approximately C$280 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately C$134 million. Their combined revenue has grown at an average annual rate of about 27% over the last three years, though the company said that performance also benefited from higher market volatility. TMX expects the investment to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share within the first 12 months after closing, before synergies. Arnold said management sees the more significant synergy opportunities as revenue-related, although expense synergies are also expected. McKenzie said the combined business would represent approximately 10% of the U.S. options market, in addition to a growing U.S. equities-market presence. He said the transaction would combine complementary offerings, technology and client relationships from BOX and MEMX. The company intends to finance the MEMX investment with debt. TMX said its leverage ratio could reach as high as 3.4 times on a conservative pro forma basis that assumes several pending transactions close simultaneously. Management expects actual leverage to be lower because closings are likely to be staggered and said it expects to return to its 1.5x to 2.5x long-term leverage target within two years of closing. TMX also expects its acquisition of RAFI Indices to close by the end of the third quarter and said the acquisition would more than triple VettaFi’s assets under indexing. Its purchase of Cboe Australia was described as nearing closing, while the Cboe Canada transaction remains subject to a separate Canadian regulatory review process. Separately, the board approved an 8% increase in TMX’s quarterly dividend to C$0.26 per common share, payable Aug. 28 to shareholders of record on Aug. 14. TMX Group Ltd is a company that operates several global markets to provide investment opportunities for its clients. TMX Group's key operations include Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange, The Canadian Depository for Securities, Montreal Exchange, Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation, and Trayport, which provides listing markets, trading markets, clearing facilities, depository services, technology solutions, data products, and other services to the global financial community. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "TMX Group Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Second Quarter Highlights* Diluted EPS for the Quarter of $3.35, Up 50 percent Adjusted Diluted EPS1 for the Quarter of $3.56, Up 45 percent Record Net Revenue for the Quarter of $731.6 million, Up 25 percent Increases 2026 Organic Total Net Revenue Growth Target2 to 'mid to high teens' from 'low double-digit to mid teens' and Cboe Data Vantage3 Organic Net Revenue Growth Target2 to 'low teens' from 'low double-digit' Reaffirms 2026 Adjusted Operating Expense Guidance2 of $838 to $853 million CHICAGO, July 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE) today reported financial results for the second quarter of 2026. "Our strong second quarter results reflect the progress we're making as we execute our growth strategy," said Craig Donohue, Chief Executive Officer of Cboe Global Markets. "We're investing in opportunities that will define Cboe's future. Whether it's expanding event contracts, growing Cboe Clear U.S., or advancing around-the-clock access to our markets, we're executing with speed and discipline to create durable growth and value for our shareholders." "Cboe delivered another quarter of record revenue results, producing 25 percent net revenue growth on a year-over-year basis, 50 percent diluted EPS growth, and 45 percent adjusted diluted EPS1 growth," said Jill Griebenow, Cboe Global Markets Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. "Our Derivatives business again set a quarterly record, growing net revenue 30 percent on the back of another record quarter of index options volumes. Cash and Spot Markets net revenue rose 22 percent and our Data Vantage business grew 15 percent on a year-over-year basis. Given our strong performance through the first half of the year, we are increasing our 2026 organic total net revenue growth target2 to 'mid to high teens' from 'low double-digit to mid teens', and our Data Vantage organic net revenue growth target2 to 'low teens' from 'low double-digit'. We remain focused on disciplined execution as we build on this momentum." Consolidated Second Quarter Results Table 1 below presents selected unaudited condensed consolidated financial information for the company as reported and on an adjusted basis for the three months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025. Total revenues less cost of revenues (referred to as "net revenue"2) of $731.6 million increased 25 percent, compared to $587.3 million in the prior-year period, a result of increases across all net revenue2 captions. Total operating expenses were $255.6 million versus $248.2 million in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of $7.4 million. This increase was primarily due to an increase in severance expense related to the company's previously announced strategic realignment and an increase in accrued bonuses related to strong company performance, partially offset by a decrease in impairment expense related to Cboe Japan in 2025. Adjusted operating expenses1 of $216.7 million were up $3.4 million compared to $213.3 million in the second quarter of 2025. These increases were primarily due to an increase in accrued bonuses related to strong company performance and an increase in travel and promotional expenses, partially offset by a decrease in professional fees when compared to the second quarter of 2025. The effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2026 was 28.6 percent as compared with 29.7 percent in the second quarter of 2025. The lower effective tax rate in 2026 is primarily due to reduced interest related to the resolution of uncertain tax positions with state and local taxing authorities. The effective tax rate on adjusted earnings1 was 28.5 percent, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points when compared with 29.8 percent in last year's second quarter. The change was primarily due to reduced interest on uncertain tax positions. Diluted EPS for the second quarter of 2026 increased 50 percent to $3.35 compared to the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted diluted EPS1 of $3.56 increased 45 percent compared to 2025 second quarter results. Business Segment Information: Discussion of Results by Business Segment: Options: Record Options net revenue of $473.9 million was up $109.1 million, or 30 percent, from the second quarter of 2025. Net transaction and clearing fees1 increased primarily as a result of a 26 percent increase in total options average daily volume ("ADV"), coupled with a 6 percent increase in total options revenue per contract ("RPC") versus the second quarter of 2025. Market data fees were 20 percent higher and access and capacity fees were 19 percent higher as compared to the second quarter of 2025. Net transaction and clearing fees1 increased $107.5 million, or 33 percent, reflecting a 32 percent increase in index options ADV and a 24 percent increase in multi-listed options ADV. Total options RPC increased 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2025. The increase in total options RPC was due to a product mix shift, with index options representing a higher percentage of total options volume, paired with a 3 percent increase in index options RPC. Cboe's Options exchanges had total market share of 30.0 percent for the second quarter of 2026, down compared to 30.2 percent in the second quarter of 2025. North American (N.A.) Equities: Record N.A. Equities net revenue of $114.7 million increased $16.3 million, or 17 percent, from the second quarter of 2025, reflecting higher net transaction and clearing fees1, access and capacity fees, and market data fees. Net transaction and clearing fees1 increased $10.2 million, or 37 percent, compared to the second quarter of 2025. The increase was driven by stronger industry volumes and improved net capture rates for on-exchange U.S. Equities exchanges versus the second quarter of 2025. Cboe's U.S. Equities exchanges had market share of 9.4 percent for the second quarter of 2026, down compared to 10.5 percent in the second quarter of 2025. Cboe's U.S. Equities off-exchange market share was 18.8 percent, up from 14.9 percent in the second quarter of 2025. Europe and Asia Pacific (APAC): Europe and APAC net revenue of $84.8 million increased $14.4 million, or 20 percent, from the second quarter of 2025, reflecting growth in net transaction and clearing fees1 and non-transaction revenues. On a constant currency basis2, net revenue was $83.0 million, up 18 percent on a year-over-year basis. European Equities average daily notional value ("ADNV") traded on Cboe European Equities was €15.5 billion, up 13 percent compared to the second quarter of 2025 driven by stronger industry market volumes. Cboe Clear Europe net settlement volume reached 3,964.2 thousand shares, up 21 percent from the second quarter of 2025. For the second quarter of 2026, Cboe European Equities had 24.4 percent market share, down from 25.1 percent in the second quarter of 2025. Futures: Futures net revenue of $30.6 million increased $0.5 million, or 2 percent, from the second quarter of 2025 driven by an increase in market data fees. Net transaction and clearing fees1 were flat when compared to the second quarter of 2025. Global FX: Global FX net revenue of $27.6 million increased $4.0 million, or 17 percent, from the second quarter of 2025. The increase was due to higher net transaction and clearing fees1. ADNV traded on the Cboe FX platform was $60.6 billion for the quarter, up 8 percent compared to last year's second quarter, and net capture rate per one million dollars traded was $2.96 for the second quarter of 2026, up 6 percent compared to $2.81 in the second quarter of 2025. 2026 Fiscal Year Financial Guidance1 Cboe provided guidance for the 2026 fiscal year as noted below. Organic total net revenue growth2 is expected to be in the 'mid to high teens' range, up from prior guidance of 'low double-digit to mid teens' in 2026. Organic net revenue growth2 from Data Vantage is expected to be in the 'low teens' range, up from prior guidance of 'low double-digit' in 2026. Reaffirms adjusted operating expenses2 in 2026 are expected to be in the range of $838 to $853 million. The guidance excludes the expected amortization of acquired intangible assets of $59 million; the company adjusts for this amount in its non-GAAP reconciliation. Depreciation and amortization expense for 2026 is expected to be in the range of $54 to $58 million, down from our prior guidance of $56 to $60 million, excluding the expected amortization of acquired intangible assets. Reaffirms the effective tax rate on adjusted earnings2 for the full year 2026 is expected to be in the range of 27.5 to 29.5 percent. Significant changes in trading volume, expenses, tax laws or rates, and other items could materially impact this expectation. Capital expenditures for 2026 are expected to be in the range of $98 to $108 million, up from our prior guidance of $73 to $83 million. Capital Management At June 30, 2026, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $2,276.2 million and adjusted cash3 of $2,346.8 million. Total debt as of June 30, 2026 was $1,443.8 million. The company paid cash dividends of $75.7 million, or $0.72 per share, during the second quarter of 2026 and utilized $32.6 million to repurchase approximately 127 thousand shares of its common stock under its share repurchase program at an average price of $256.61 per share. As of June 30, 2026, the company had approximately $536.8 million of availability remaining under its existing share repurchase authorizations. Earnings Conference Call Executives of Cboe Global Markets will host a conference call to review its second quarter financial results today, July 31, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. ET/7:30 a.m. CT. The conference call and any accompanying slides will be publicly available via live webcast from the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.cboe.com, under Events & Presentations. Participants may also listen via telephone by dialing (800) 715-9871 (toll-free) or (646) 307-1963 (toll) and using the Conference ID 8711362. Telephone participants should place calls 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. The webcast will be archived on the company's website for replay. About Cboe Global Markets Cboe Global Markets, Inc. is a leading global markets operator with a long history of innovation in equity derivatives. Since launching the world's first listed options exchange in 1973, Cboe has pioneered landmark products, including the introduction of S&P 500® index options and the creation of the VIX® Index, the world's leading gauge of market volatility, reshaping how investors manage risk and access opportunity. Today, Cboe operates derivatives, equities, and FX markets, providing trading, clearing, and investment solutions for customers worldwide. To learn more about Cboe, visit www.cboe.com. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," or "continue," and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions, or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price and new products and services competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading or clearing volumes, market data fees, or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes or changes in tax regimes; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security vulnerabilities and breaches; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel; increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our business and operational dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; factors that impact the quality and integrity of our and other applicable indices; our ability to manage our global operations, growth, and strategic acquisitions, wind-downs, divestitures or alliances effectively; increases in the cost of the products and services we use; our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to minimize the risks, including our credit, liquidity, market, investment, counterparty, and default risks, associated with operating our clearinghouses; our ability to accommodate trading and clearing volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; misconduct by those who use our markets or our products or for whom we clear transactions; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing our business interests and our regulatory responsibilities; the loss of key customers or a significant reduction in trading or clearing volumes by key customers; separate from and not integrated with our registered national securities exchanges; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations and our ability to make payments on or refinance our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; impairment of our goodwill, long-lived assets, investments, or intangible assets; the accuracy of our estimates and expectations; and litigation risks and other liabilities. More detailed information about factors that may cause our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC. We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The condensed consolidated statements of income and balance sheets are unaudited and subject to revision. CBOE-F Trademarks: Cboe®, Cboe Global Markets®, Cboe Volatility Index®, Cboe Clear®, Cboe Datashop®, BIDS Trading®, BZX®, BYX®, EDGX®, EDGA®, and VIX® are registered trademarks and Cboe PlusSM, Cboe PredictsSM, and Cboe Data VantageSM are service marks of Cboe Global Markets, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. ADV = average daily volume; ADNV = average daily notional value. RPC, average revenue per contract, for options and futures, represents total net transaction fees recognized for the period divided by total contracts traded during the period. Touched volume represents the total number of shares of equity securities and ETFs internally matched on our exchanges or routed to and executed on an external market center. Matched volume represents the total number of shares of equity securities and ETFs executed on our exchanges. U.S. Equities - Exchange, "net capture per 100 touched shares" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments and routing and clearing costs divided by the product of one-hundredth ADV of touched shares on BZX, BYX, EDGX and EDGA and the number of trading days. U.S. Equities - Off-Exchange data reflects BIDS Trading. For U.S. Equities - Off-Exchange, "net capture per 100 touched shares" refers to transaction fees less order and execution management system (OMS/EMS) fees and clearing costs divided by the product of one-hundredth ADV of touched shares on BIDS Trading and the number of trading days for the period. Canadian Equities, "net capture per 10,000 shares" refers to transaction fees divided by the product of one-ten-thousandth ADV of shares for Cboe Canada and the number of trading days. Total market share represents Cboe Canada volume divided by the total volume of the Canadian Equities market. European Equities, "net capture per matched notional value" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments in Euros divided by the product of ADNV in Euros of shares matched on Cboe Europe Equities and the number of trading days. "Trades cleared" refers to the total number of non-interoperable trades cleared, "Fee per trade cleared" refers to clearing fees divided by number of non-interoperable trades cleared, "Net settlement volume" refers to the total number of settlements executed after netting, and "Net fee per settlement" refers to settlement fees less direct costs incurred to settle divided by the number of settlements executed after netting. Australian Equities data reflects data from Cboe Australia. Australian Equities, "net capture per matched notional value" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments in Australian dollars divided by the product of ADNV in Australian dollars of shares matched on Cboe Australia and the number of Australian Equities trading days. Global FX, "net capture per one million dollars traded" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments, if any, divided by the Spot and SEF products of one-thousandth of ADNV traded on the Cboe FX Markets and the number of trading days, divided by two, which represents the buyer and seller that are both charged on the transaction. Average transaction fees per contract can be affected by various factors, including exchange fee rates, volume-based discounts, and transaction mix by contract type and product type. 15.8Deferred income taxes224.7185.3Non-current operating lease liabilities111.5120.9Other non-current liabilities43.239.8Total liabilities4,983.54,167.0Stockholders' Equity:Preferred stock——Common stock1.01.0Treasury stock, at cost(109.4)(1.5)Additional paid-in capital1,598.51,565.1Retained earnings4,131.03,543.6Accumulated other comprehensive income, net4.730.1Total stockholders' equity5,625.85,138.3Total liabilities and stockholders' equity$ 10,609.3$ 9,305.3 Non-GAAP Information In addition to disclosing results determined in accordance with GAAP, Cboe Global Markets has disclosed certain non-GAAP measures of operating performance. These measures are not in accordance with, or a substitute for, GAAP, and may be different from or inconsistent with non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. The non-GAAP measures provided in this press release include adjusted operating expenses, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income allocated to common stockholders, adjusted diluted earnings per share, effective tax rate on adjusted earnings, adjusted income before income taxes, operating EBITDA, operating EBITDA margin, adjusted operating EBITDA, adjusted operating EBITDA margin, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted cash, and net revenue in constant currency. Management believes that the non-GAAP financial measures presented in this press release provide additional and comparative information to assess trends in our core operations and a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Non-GAAP financial measures disclosed by management are provided as additional information to investors in order to provide them with an alternative method for assessing our financial condition and operating results. The tables below show the reconciliation of each financial measure from GAAP to non-GAAP. The non-GAAP financial measures exclude the impact of those items detailed below and are referred to as adjusted financial measures. EBITDA Reconciliations EBITDA (earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization) and Adjusted EBITDA are widely used non-GAAP financial measures of operating performance. These metrics are presented as supplemental information that the company believes are useful to investors to evaluate the company's results because they exclude certain items that are not directly related to the company's core operating performance. Operating EBITDA is calculated by adding back to operating income depreciation and amortization. Adjusted Operating EBITDA is calculated by adding back to Operating EBITDA relevant adjustments. Operating EBITDA margin represents Operating EBITDA divided by revenues less cost of revenues. Adjusted Operating EBITDA margin represents Adjusted Operating EBITDA divided by revenues less cost of revenues. EBITDA is calculated by adding back to net income interest (income) expense, net, income tax expense, and depreciation and amortization. EBITDA margin represents EBITDA divided by revenues less cost of revenues. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated by adding back to EBITDA relevant adjustments. Adjusted EBITDA margin represents Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenues less cost of revenues. Relevant adjustments are detailed in the reconciliations that follow. Operating EBITDA, Adjusted Operating EBITDA, EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as substitutes either for net income, as an indicator of the company's operating performance, or for cash flow as a measure of the company's liquidity. In addition, because Operating EBITDA, Operating EBITDA margin, Adjusted Operating EBITDA, Adjusted Operating EBITDA margin, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA margin may not be calculated identically by all companies, the presentation here may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cboe-global-markets-reports-results-for-second-quarter-2026-302839610.html

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: July 31, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Record net revenue of $732 million, up 25% year-over-year, with adjusted EPS up 45% to $3.56. Broad-based growth across all segments, with derivatives net revenue up 30% and record index options volume. Strong retail engagement driven by the repeal of the pattern day trader rule, boosting SPX Zero DTE and mini SPX volumes. Successful launch of Cboe Predicts and filing for company KPI event contracts, expanding into new growth areas. Data Vantage net revenue up 15% with strong international demand and new subscription sales. Improved operating margin to 72.2% with disciplined expense management. Raised 2026 organic net revenue growth guidance to mid-to-high teens. Strong balance sheet with $2.3 billion cash and low leverage, supporting capital returns and investments. Market share eased slightly in Europe and Asia Pacific despite strong revenue growth. Futures net revenue growth was modest at 2% year-over-year. Increased capital expenditures due to investments in clearing infrastructure and hardware purchases. Potential regulatory uncertainty for new products, including SEC approval for KPI contracts. Dependence on continued retail engagement and market volatility for sustained growth. Upcoming debt maturity of $650 million in Q1 2027, which may limit share repurchase flexibility. Expense guidance increased due to higher incentive compensation and return-to-office costs. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Signs with PRLB. Is CBOE fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: How does Cboe view the competitive threat from perpetual futures, and what is the current retail mix in options trading? A: Rob Hawking, Global Head of Derivatives, explained that perpetual futures and SPX options serve fundamentally different investor needs. Perps offer linear exposure with no expiration and unbounded downside risk, while options provide defined risk and convexity. Over 95% of zero DTE trades are defined-risk strategies, with 50-55% being spreads. He noted that despite decades of access to S&P futures, SPX options demand continues to grow due to this different risk-return profile, making perps complementary rather than a substitute. Q: What is the status of the company KPI event contracts filed with the SEC, and what is the expected demand and revenue impact? A: Rob Hawking stated that Cboe filed for company-specific KPI contracts covering 23 major US companies, targeting a late September/early October launch pending SEC approval. The products allow trading on granular metrics like NVIDIA's data center revenue or Microsoft's cloud revenue. He expects adoption to follow a similar path to Zero DTE, starting retail-heavy before institutions join as historical data accumulates. Jill Griebenow, CFO, confirmed that no revenue from these products is baked into 2026 guidance. Q: What is Cboe's confidence in SEC approval for KPI contracts, and how will they be priced? A: Craig Donahue, CEO, noted the company has worked closely with SEC staff prior to filing and believes the process is going smoothly, though timing is outside their control. The comment period ends next Wednesday. Rob Hawking added that pricing will be competitive with existing event prediction contracts, noting the smaller notional value of these dollar-based yes/no contracts compared to SPX options, giving Cboe flexibility on pricing. Q: How will Cboe drive adoption of company KPI contracts given the current dominance of sports contracts in prediction markets? A: Rob Hawking emphasized Cboe's intermediated model as a key advantage. Retail brokers like Robinhood, Schwab, and Webull are seeing strong inbound demand from customers and are actively seeking securities-based solutions. Unlike traditional product development where exchanges push products to platforms, this demand is pulling the product through distribution channels, with brokers requesting seamless integration into their existing interfaces. Q: How would a potential shift to semi-annual corporate reporting affect options usage and retail engagement? A: Rob Hawking noted that options are used daily to trade around market movements, not just earnings events, so the impact may be limited. He highlighted that event and prediction contracts provide a hedge, as there are many other metrics and uncertainties to trade even if earnings frequency decreases. Jill Griebenow added that issuer sentiment suggests quarterly reporting is likely to continue, but Cboe is monitoring the situation closely. Q: What products can Cboe innovate once it receives clearing capabilities, and are there inorganic investment opportunities? A: Craig Donahue explained that in Europe, Cboe is focused on clearing securities finance transactions, while in the US, clearing enables product innovation like KPI contracts and supports the move toward 23/5 and eventually 24/7 trading. He emphasized this complements rather than replaces the OCC partnership. Scott Johnston, COO, added that Cboe is exploring opportunities across tokenization, crypto rails infrastructure, and improving innovation speed at Cboe Clear US, though nothing specific can be discussed yet. Q: How does Cboe view the competitive landscape with vertically integrated retail brokers offering their own contracts? A: Craig Donahue expressed strong belief in the value of open, all-to-all exchange and centrally cleared markets, arguing that closed silo systems lack interactive capability across the marketplace. Rob Hawking added that centralized clearing enables risk offsets and capital efficiency across the ecosystem, which is impossible in siloed structures. Prashant Bhadia noted the massive demand from over 50 million retail clients on partner platforms, supporting the intermediated model. Q: Are event contracts and KPIs large standalone market opportunities or feeders into Cboe's core business? A: Rob Hawking described them as a combination of both, expanding Cboe's product toolkit. He illustrated the interconnected value chain from company KPIs to EPS to stock price to sector and index levels. This interconnectedness allows institutions to spread risk across portfolios while retail traders express views on individual components. He also mentioned potential expansion into economic indicators like CPI, which would further connect to market movements. Q: What is the status of expanding the customer base for proprietary products like SPX and zero DTE, especially internationally? A: Rob Hawking reported strong international demand from APAC and EMEA regions, citing Korea as a success story where the vast majority of retail brokers are now online. He highlighted the impact of the pattern day trader rule repeal, noting that across top nine retail brokers, SPX ADV rose 3.5%, XSP ADV surged 36%, and multi-list options ADV increased 4% month-over-month. Simple order counts rose dramatically (SPX up 40%, XSP up 75%), indicating broader retail engagement with smaller order sizes. Q: What are the key drivers of Data Vantage growth and its sustainability into 2027? A: Heidi Fisher, Global Head of Equities and Spot Markets, reported Data Vantage revenue of $178 million, up 15% year-over-year. Two-thirds of growth came from higher access-related revenue driven by increased connectivity demand to options exchanges, reflecting 24% growth in multi-list options and 40% growth in SPX options volume. The remaining third came from market data growth, with 50% of sales from international clients, particularly Asian investors seeking US market access. She deferred 2027 guidance to year-end. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

For the quarter ended June 2026, CBOE Global (CBOE) reported revenue of $731.6 million, up 24.6% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $3.56, compared to $2.46 in the year-ago quarter. The reported revenue compares to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $716.61 million, representing a surprise of +2.09%. The company delivered an EPS surprise of +3.19%, with the consensus EPS estimate being $3.45. While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health. As these metrics influence top- and bottom-line performance, comparing them to the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated helps investors project a stock's price performance more accurately. Here is how CBOE performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: Average Daily Volume by Product - Options - Index options: 6.21 million compared to the 6.21 million average estimate based on five analysts. Average Revenue Per Contract by Product - Futures: $1.66 compared to the $1.68 average estimate based on five analysts. Average Daily Volume by Product - Options: 21.86 million versus the five-analyst average estimate of 21.87 million. Average Daily Volume by Product - Options - Multi-listed options: 15.65 million compared to the 15.66 million average estimate based on five analysts. Revenues- Regulatory fees- Total: $164.6 million compared to the $13.31 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of +70% year over year. Revenues- Market data fees- Total: $91.8 million versus $89.31 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +11.4% change. Revenues- Access and capacity fees- Total: $115.6 million versus the four-analyst average estimate of $113.43 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +14.2%. Revenues- Net transaction and clearing fees: $561.3 million compared to the $555.71 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of +30.8% year over year. Revenues- Other revenue- Total: $35 million compared to the $22.83 million average estimate based on three analysts. The reported number represents a change of +37.8% year over year. Total revenues less cost of revenues- Derivatives markets: $412.7 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $416.25 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +30.4%. Revenues- Net transaction and clearing fees- Global FX: $23.7 million versus $23.08 million estimated by two analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +16.2% change. Revenues- Net transaction and clearing fees- Futures: $22.9 million versus the two-analyst average estimate of $22.98 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of 0%. View all Key Company Metrics for CBOE here>>> Shares of CBOE have returned +19.1% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -0.5% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (CBOE) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

CBOE Global (CBOE) came out with quarterly earnings of $3.56 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.45 per share. This compares to earnings of $2.46 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +3.19%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this holding company for the Chicago Board Options Exchange would post earnings of $3.37 per share when it actually produced earnings of $3.7, delivering a surprise of +9.79%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. CBOE, which belongs to the Zacks Securities and Exchanges industry, posted revenues of $731.6 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.09%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $587.3 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. CBOE shares have added about 18.1% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 8.7%. While CBOE has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for CBOE was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $3.28 on $699.01 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $13.66 on $2.81 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Securities and Exchanges is currently in the bottom 28% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Another stock from the same industry, OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCM), has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 5. This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.70 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +16.7%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. OTC Markets Group Inc.'s revenues are expected to be $32.47 million, up 6.5% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (CBOE) : Free Stock Analysis Report OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCM) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. CBOE reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.56 per share, up 45% year over year. The bottom line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.45 by 3.2%.Net revenues reached a record $731.6 million, increasing 25% year over year and surpassing the consensus mark of $717 million by 2.1%. Results benefited from broad-based growth, led by record Options revenues as total options average daily volume rose 26%. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Cboe Global Markets, Inc. Quote Cash and Spot Markets net revenues increased 22% year over year to $141.1 million. Derivatives Markets net revenues climbed 30% to $412.7 million, supported by higher transaction activity and a favorable product mix.Data Vantage net revenues rose 15% to $177.8 million. Access and capacity fees increased to $115.6 million from $101.2 million, while market data fees advanced to $65.1 million from $56.4 million. Options net revenues increased 30% year over year to a record $473.9 million. Net transaction and clearing fees rose 33%, reflecting a 32% increase in index options average daily volume and a 24% increase in multi-listed options volume.Total options revenue per contract increased 6% to 31.7 cents. Index options accounted for a larger portion of trading activity, while index options revenue per contract rose 3%. Options market share was 30%, down slightly from 30.2% a year earlier. Adjusted operating expenses increased 2% year over year to $216.7 million. Higher accrued bonuses tied to company performance and increased travel and promotional spending were partly offset by lower professional fees.Adjusted operating income advanced 38% to $514.9 million. The adjusted operating margin expanded 670 basis points to 70.4%.  Adjusted operating EBITDA margin improved 640 basis points to 72.2%. The effective tax rate on adjusted earnings declined to 28.5% from 29.8%. North American Equities net revenues rose 17% year over year to a record $114.7 million. Higher industry volumes and improved net capture rates supported a 37% increase in net transaction and clearing fees. U.S. equities exchange market share declined to 9.4%, while off-exchange share increased to 18.8%.Europe and Asia Pacific revenues advanced 20% to $84.8 million, aided by transaction, clearing and non-transaction revenue growth. Global FX revenues rose 17% to $27.6 million as average daily notional value increased 8%. Futures revenues edged up 2% to $30.6 million, driven by higher market data fees. CBOE now expects organic total net revenue growth in the mid-to-high teens, compared with its prior projection of low double digits to mid-teens. The company also raised its Data Vantage organic net revenue growth target to the low teens from low double digits.Adjusted operating expenses are still projected between $838 million and $853 million. Depreciation and amortization expenses are now expected between $54 million and $58 million, down from $56 million to $60 million. Capital expenditures are projected between $98 million and $108 million, up from the prior range of $73 million to $83 million. Cboe Global ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $2.28 billion and adjusted cash of $2.35 billion. Total debt was $1.44 billion as of June 30, 2026.The company paid $75.7 million in dividends, or 72 cents per share, during the quarter. It also repurchased roughly 127,000 shares for $32.6 million at an average price of $256.61. CBOE had $536.8 million remaining under its existing share repurchase authorizations. CBOE currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Nasdaq, Inc. NDAQ reported second-quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings of $1.07 per share, up 25% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 98 cents by 9.18%.Net revenues increased 15% to $1.5 billion and topped the consensus estimate of $1.4 billion by 3.87%. Growth was broad-based across all three divisions. Annualized recurring revenues rose 11% to $3.3 billion and organic ARR growth reached 12%.Nasdaq updated its 2026 non-GAAP operating expense guidance to a range of $2.530 billion to $2.570 billion.CME Group's CME second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $2.99 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.91 by 2.7%. The bottom line increased 1% from the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $1.70 billion surpassed the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion by 1.2% and rose 1% year over year.Average daily volume (ADV) totaled 29.8 million contracts, representing the company's third-highest quarterly ADV. Management expects full-year adjusted operating expenses, excluding license fees, of approximately $1.695 billion and capital expenditures, net of leasehold improvement allowances, of roughly $85 million. Intercontinental Exchange ICE reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.90 per share, which rose 5.0% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.26%. Net revenues of $2.67 billion increased 4.8% and beat the consensus mark by 1.51%.Growth in recurring revenues, fixed income and data services, and mortgage technology offset weaker energy revenues. Recurring revenues rose 7.7% to $1.35 billion, while total futures and options open interest was up 18% year over year as of July 28. For 2026, ICE now expects GAAP operating expenses of $5.14-$5.18 billion and adjusted operating expenses of $4.19-$4.23 billion. Third-quarter adjusted operating expenses are projected to be $1.06-$1.07 billion. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (CBOE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) : Free Stock Analysis Report CME Group Inc. (CME) : Free Stock Analysis Report Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research