CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Receives $291.81 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eighteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $291.8125.

Several research firms recently issued reports on CME. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. UBS Group cut their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 22nd.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. The trade was a 17.20% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CME. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after acquiring an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter valued at about $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of CME Group by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after purchasing an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after purchasing an additional 134,242 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME opened at $269.80 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $97.01 billion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $250.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $280.22. CME Group has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that CME Group will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.11%.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc is a global markets company that operates some of the world’s largest and most liquid derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. The firm offers futures and options contracts across a broad range of asset classes — including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals — and serves a diverse client base of institutional investors, commercial hedgers, brokers and retail participants.

The company’s core services include electronic trading on the CME Globex platform, central clearing through CME Clearing, and distribution of market data, indexes and analytics.