For those who $CME (-0,61%) aren’t familiar with it… here’s a quick summary:

The CME Group operates the world’s largest futures exchange. There, investors and companies trade futures and options on stock indices, interest rates, commodities, currencies, and many other asset classes to hedge against risks or to speculate on price movements.

Simply put: for example, Farmers, airlines, and many other companies today use derivatives on fuel or other commodities to hedge against potential price increases in the future.

• Airlines: Fuel prices
• Farmers: Prices for corn, wheat, soybeans, livestock, etc.
• Energy companies: Oil and natural gas prices
• Banks and insurance companies: Interest rate changes
• International companies: Exchange rates
• Investors and Funds: Stock indices such as the S&P 500 or Nasdaq

In my opinion , a great niche company, with extra special dividends when the company generates high free cash flow.

My thoughts:

The financial sector is now the largest in my portfolio. I’ll be taking a slightly more cautious approach here for the time being, until good opportunities to buy more arise.

CME , however, I’ll still build up my position to my desired size of approx. €6,000 and then simply let the position grow from there.

I expect that over the next few months I’ll focus more on materials,
industry and infrastructure . These companies include, among others, $HD (+1,54%) and $WIE (+2,77%) and $DG (+3,14%) .

As I had already mentioned a few years ago in the portfolio and at that time with profit . In the meantime, the stock is trading significantly lower than it did back then, and it still haunts me to this day because I bricks seem to be on every construction site .

What interests you right now? ⤵️

This is not investment advice—just my thoughts.

I’ve held Talgo for 5 years. My position is down 25% including dividends. I bought it because of its potential: high-speed trains, Spanish technology, and solid contracts.

With Merlin, it was a different story: a 30% gain in value and another 30% in dividends over a similar period. A Spanish REIT with quality assets. It seemed like a safe bet.

Both are in the Low Threshold quadrant on DividendQuad. The numbers don’t lie:

🔴 Talgo ($TLGO (-0,46%)
): Quality 15, Opportunity 10. Negative free cash flow (-€94M). Penalties from Renfe totaling €116M for missed deliveries. Debt-to-equity ratio skyrocketing to 3.27x. The government blocked a takeover by a foreign group. No dividend, no cash.

🔴 Merlin ($MRL (-1,89%)
): Quality 30, Opportunity 15. Cut the dividend by 93.9% in 2026 to finance its pivot to data centers. Current yield: 2.55%. Negative FFO per share (-€1.07). And the risk that the SOCIMI tax regime will be eliminated adds an extra layer of uncertainty.

This week I sold both and made purchases in the following stocks:

🟢 Vinci ($DG (+3,14%) ): Quality 80, Opportunity 85. Yield 4.18%. P/FFO 7.8x. Debt/EBITDA 1.48x. Monopoly concessions with inflation-indexed revenues.

🟢 Standard Life ($PHNX (-1,14%) ): Quality 80, Opportunity 85. Yield 6.14%. The reported losses are purely accounting-related (hedging). Adjusted operating profit grew 15% to £945M. Solvency II surplus of 153%.

🟢 EON ($EOAN (+1,45%) ): Quality 80, Opportunity 85. Yield 2.96%. P/FFO 7.4x. 75–80% of EBITDA comes from regulated networks. The recent net loss was a one-time accounting charge.

I’m glad that since I created my tool, these decisions have become much easier. It helps me separate the emotional aspect from the decision-making process.

$FER (+1,24%) has been laughing at me for a long time. They have turned Heathrow upside down and the move to relocate the headquarters to the Netherlands has since made it more attractive because the dividends are no longer subject to withholding tax in Spain. They are also a supposedly "safe bank" in Europe, as infrastructure cannot be easily doubled/replaced. While reviewing the watchlist, they have now come back into my focus. Unfortunately, they have become really expensive in the meantime.

How do you see the company? Is it a quality share that has its price, or is it now the best-known and therefore too expensive European infrastructure stock? The figures for the 2025 financial year will be published on February 25 and I'm thinking about buying in before then. Or would you rather wait for the figures to see if they confirm the current development, because that doesn't matter for this buy & forget stock?

Alternatively, I would also find $DG (+3,14%) interesting, but here the French source tax issue is frankly scaring me. Source tax issue puts me off to be honest.

The French infrastructure group $DG (+3,14%) exceeded market expectations last year.

Earnings before interest and taxes from ordinary activities rose by a good six percent to 9.56 billion euros in 2025, as the company announced on Thursday after the close of trading in Nanterre.

Turnover climbed by a good four percent to almost 74.6 billion euros. At the bottom line, profit increased by just under one percent to 4.9 billion euros.

The dividend is set to rise by 25 cents to 5.00 euros per share. Analysts had expected less on average.

The France withholding tax is a bit annoying but for me a classic buy & hold forever stock.