Contrasting CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) and Virtu Financial (VIRT)

CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares CME Group and Virtu Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CME Group	46.05%	7.61%	2.20%
Virtu Financial	3.42%	16.54%	2.24%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CME Group and Virtu Financial’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CME Group	$3.61 billion	11.61	$2.49 billion	$4.89	25.21
Virtu Financial	$531.65 million	1.31	$20.81 million	$0.51	33.53

CME Group has higher revenue and earnings than Virtu Financial. CME Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Virtu Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for CME Group and Virtu Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CME Group	0	2	4	0	2.67
Virtu Financial	2	1	0	0	1.33

CME Group currently has a consensus target price of $131.33, indicating a potential upside of 6.55%. Virtu Financial has a consensus target price of $14.33, indicating a potential downside of 16.18%. Given CME Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe CME Group is more favorable than Virtu Financial.

Risk and Volatility

CME Group has a beta of 0.73, suggesting that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Virtu Financial has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

CME Group pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Virtu Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. CME Group pays out 54.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Virtu Financial pays out 188.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.3% of CME Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.3% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of CME Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 69.9% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

CME Group beats Virtu Financial on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc., through its exchanges, provides products across all asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The Company’s segment primarily consists of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME), Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. (CBOT), New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (NYMEX) and Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX) exchanges. The Company provides electronic trading around the globe on its CME Globex platform. The Company also offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives through its clearinghouses CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe. It also provides hosting, connectivity and customer support for electronic trading through its co-location services. The Company’s CME Direct platform offers side-by-side trading of exchange-listed and privately negotiated markets.

Virtu Financial Company Profile

Virtu Financial, Inc. is a holding company. The Company is a technology-enabled market maker and liquidity provider to the financial markets across the world. It is engaged in buying or selling a range of securities and other financial instruments and earning small bid/ask spreads across various transactions. It has a single, multi-asset, multi-currency technology platform, through which it provides quotations to buyers and sellers in equities, commodities, currencies, options, fixed income and other securities on exchanges, markets and liquidity pools in various countries around the world. It makes markets in a range of different assets classes, such as Americas Equities; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Equities; Asia Pacific (APAC) Equities; Global Commodities; Global Currencies, and Options, Fixed Income and Other Securities. It makes markets for global banks, brokers and other intermediaries, and indirectly provides services to retail and institutional investors.