CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Upgraded by Citigroup to Buy Rating

Citigroup upgraded shares of CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $300.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $275.00.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CME. Wall Street Zen cut shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, July 13th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group cut their price objective on CME Group from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Barclays set a $298.00 price objective on CME Group and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $268.14.

CME Group Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $270.28 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $270.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $270.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group has a 12-month low of $213.94 and a 12-month high of $290.79. The company has a market cap of $97.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 0.43.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a net margin of 58.48% and a return on equity of 14.60%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.56 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that CME Group will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were paid a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 48.40%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.00, for a total transaction of $102,704.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 7,851 shares in the company, valued at $2,056,962. This represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total transaction of $3,229,407.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 17,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,734,436.80. This trade represents a 40.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 13,043 shares of company stock worth $3,527,956. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CME Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,695,313,000 after purchasing an additional 532,549 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,524,271,000 after acquiring an additional 319,899 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,571,447,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in CME Group by 2.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,682,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,289,910,000 after acquiring an additional 92,925 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its stake in CME Group by 9.7% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,091,401,000 after acquiring an additional 363,130 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.