BofA/Merrill analyst Michael Carrier upgraded CBOE Holdings two notches to Buy from Underperform and raised its price target to $85 from $74. The analyst sees multiple sources of upside to accelerate earnings driven by the BATS deal, increased capital deployment, rising volatility off of historic lows, and potential US tax reform. Carrier raised his 2018 earnings to $2.85 but said earnings could rise above $4.00 on full synergies, elevated growth, and tax reform.

Cboe Global Markets announced plans to refocus its digital asset business to leverage its core strengths in derivatives, technology and product innovation while realizing operating efficiencies for both Cboe and its clients. These changes are being made as part of Cboe's strategic review, taking into consideration the lack of regulatory clarity in the digital space. Cboe plans to transition and fully integrate its digital asset derivatives, currently offered by Cboe Digital, into its existing Global Derivatives and Clearing businesses. Additionally, the company plans to wind down operations of the Cboe Digital Spot Market, the company's spot digital asset trading platform, in Q3, subject to regulatory review. Cboe plans to transition its cash-settled bitcoin and ether futures contracts, currently available for trading on the Cboe Digital Exchange to the Cboe Futures Exchange in the first half of 2025, pending regulatory review and certain corporate approvals. This move will consolidate all Cboe U.S. futures products, including digital asset futures, onto one exchange. In addition, Cboe will maintain ownership and operation of Cboe Clear Digital, the clearing arm of Cboe Digital, and plans to align Cboe Clear Digital with Cboe Clear Europe, its European clearing house, under unified leadership. Vikesh Patel, the current President of Cboe Clear Europe, will now also oversee U.S. clearing. The company anticipates that the wind down of the Cboe Digital Spot Market operations will have an immaterial impact on Cboe's net revenue in 2024. The company estimates that expense savings will be in the range of $2M-$4M in 2024, with savings expected to be in the $11M-$15M range on a normalized annual basis.