TD Cowen Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for CME Group (NASDAQ:CME)

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by TD Cowen in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $292.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. TD Cowen’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 3.88% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised CME Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 29th. Barclays dropped their target price on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $289.75.

CME Group Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of CME traded up $3.31 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $281.08. 318,446 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,629,520. The company has a market capitalization of $101.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $256.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $278.50.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that CME Group will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CME Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% in the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID grew its position in CME Group by 191.9% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

About CME Group

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.