CME vs. Morningstar: Which Financial Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026?
Investors choosing between market infrastructure and financial data often weigh stability against growth. Today, we compare the derivatives exchange operator CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) and the investment research and data provider Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) to see which is a better buy.
CME Group runs futures and options markets across six asset classes, and Morningstar provides investment research and data. Both play important roles in global financial markets, and this comparison looks at how their finances and risks differ as of the latest reported quarter.
The case for CME
CME Group enables clients to trade futures and options across six asset classes, including interest rates and energy. Its 2025 annual report describes a 10-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud, a unit of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), that it signed in 2021. The report also describes a joint venture with FanDuel, a part of Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT), that launched a prediction markets app for retail customers in December 2025. One firm represented 12% of CME’s clearing and transaction fees revenue in 2025, and that concentration adds risk.
In 2025, revenue reached $6.5 billion, up 6.4% from the prior year. Net income was about $4.1 billion, a net margin of roughly 62%. In the second quarter of 2026, revenue was $1.71 billion, up 0.8% from the prior year, and first-half revenue was $3.59 billion, up 7.6%. On Oct. 2, CME also reported record third-quarter average daily volume of 29.4 million contracts, up 16% from a year earlier.
On Sept. 10, CME said it plans to start CME Securities Clearing, a clearing agency designed to help market participants comply with the SEC’s Treasury clearing rule, on Dec. 7, 2026, pending regulatory approvals.
At the end of 2025, CME’s debt-to-equity ratio, calculated from the balance sheet, was about 0.12x, based on $3.4 billion of long-term debt, no short-term debt, and $28.7 billion of shareholders’ equity, and about 0.13x on June 30, 2026, based on $3.4 billion of long-term debt and $26.5 billion of equity. Debt for both companies in this comparison excludes operating leases.
The current ratio, which compares short-term assets with short-term liabilities, was about 1.0x based on CME’s reported balance sheet. That figure says little by itself, because roughly $160 billion of performance bonds and guaranty fund deposits from clearing firms are listed as both a current asset and a current liability.
Free cash flow was about $4.2 billion for 2025, calculated here as $4.28 billion of operating cash flow less $84 million of property purchases.
