Martin J. Gepsman Sells 300 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Stock

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value of $81,951.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,765,601.39. This represents a 1.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $277.87 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $100.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.74, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.70 and a twelve month high of $286.48. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $266.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $247.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. The company’s revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.30%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CME Group

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CME. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in CME Group by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 4,035 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $937,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares in the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at $301,000. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 47.4% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 5,797 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after buying an additional 1,863 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its position in shares of CME Group by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,383 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $321,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,410 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on CME Group from $279.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on CME Group from $223.00 to $211.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $256.80.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.