CME Group Inc. (CME): Today's Featured Financial Winner

CME Group ( CME) pushed the Financial sector higher today making it today's featured financial winner. The sector as a whole closed the day up 0.2%. By the end of trading, CME Group rose 56 cents (1.1%) to $53.51 on light volume. Throughout the day, 1.5 million shares of CME Group exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 2.2 million shares. The stock ranged in a price between $52.95-$53.72 after having opened the day at $53.09 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $52.95. Other companies within the Financial sector that increased today were: Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania ( RBPAA), up 16.2%, MBIA ( MBI), up 14.8%, Millennium India Acquisition Corporation ( SMCG), up 11.7%, and Summit Financial Group ( SMMF), up 11.1%.

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CME Group Inc. operates the CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX futures exchanges worldwide. The company provides a range of products across various asset classes, such as interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather, and real estate. CME Group has a market cap of $17.63 billion and is part of the financial services industry. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.9, below the average financial services industry P/E ratio of 11.2 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 8.9% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday. Currently there are nine analysts that rate CME Group a buy, one analyst rates it a sell, and six rate it a hold.

TheStreet Ratings rates CME Group as a hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its expanding profit margins, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, unimpressive growth in net income and feeble growth in the company's earnings per share.

• You can view the full CME Group Ratings Report.

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For investors not wanting singular stock exposure, ETFs may be of interest. Investors who are bullish on the financial sector could consider Financial Select Sector SPDR ( XLF) while those bearish on the financial sector could consider Proshares Short Financials ( SEF).

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