CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Given New $313.00 Price Target at Piper Sandler

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) had its price target increased by Piper Sandler from $296.00 to $313.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on CME. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on CME Group from $262.00 to $263.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $266.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of CME Group from $285.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $313.00 to $304.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $287.65.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME traded up $1.50 on Thursday, reaching $285.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,339,661 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,209,226. CME Group has a 52 week low of $222.56 and a 52 week high of $290.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $102.79 billion, a PE ratio of 27.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.38. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $266.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $272.73.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 58.84%.The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.68 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that CME Group will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 48.45%.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.00, for a total transaction of $102,704.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 7,851 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,056,962. The trade was a 4.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total value of $3,229,407.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,734,436.80. This trade represents a 40.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 14,043 shares of company stock worth $3,791,486. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,431,787 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $657,045,000 after buying an additional 39,607 shares during the period. Credit Agricole S A acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $68,925,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the third quarter valued at about $2,171,000. Equitable Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 6.4% during the third quarter. Equitable Holdings Inc. now owns 4,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,290,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6,579.0% during the third quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 307,768 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $83,156,000 after buying an additional 303,160 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CME Group Company Profile

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.