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Ark.ai provides definitive, consolidated analyses of every vendor, subcontractor, supplier, grant awardee, non-profit, and investment organization in the national security and defense sectors. Organization profile pages provide a real-time view of the companies that impact critical government programs.

Ark.ai provides definitive, consolidated analyses of every vendor, subcontractor, supplier, grant awardee, non-profit, and investment organization in the national security and defense sectors. Organization profile pages provide a real-time view of the companies that impact critical government programs.

Ark.ai provides definitive, consolidated analyses of every vendor, subcontractor, supplier, grant awardee, non-profit, and investment organization in the national security and defense sectors. Organization profile pages provide a real-time view of the companies that impact critical government programs.

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Research CME group. Benefits from increased market volatility, especially when there is large trading volume. Volatility around inflation, macro events flows directly into CME's revenue. Dividend yield is 4.9%, with over half coming from special dividends. Trades at 28.2x earnings, a high valuation. However, A High margin business deserves a premium but lacks net buybacks. Less cyclical as long as there is liquidity and interest in trading.

n 2023, it turned $5.6 billion of revenues into $3.4 billion of net income, which translates to a net margin of 79%, making it one of the four most efficient S&P 500 holdings.

Thesis: Buy into the Strong Future Tailwind
As a followup to my November 2023 rating of this stock, I am upgrading it to a buy this time.

The upside factors I considered were:

Multiple future revenue drivers and positive forward revenue estimates.
Strong profit margin vs key peers, and 4 quarters of earnings growth.
Low debt/equity ratio vs peers, and declining long-term debt.
4.4% dividend yield beats peers, while also being a proven dividend grower.
Reasonable valuation despite share price trading above average.
The downside factors I considered were:

The potential for the recently bullish financial sector to reverse course in 2025, affected by exposure to commercial real estate troubles.
Based on the above factors, I gave greater weight to the 5 upside factors combined, over the single downside I identified