CME Group’s (CME) Buy Rating Reiterated at TD Cowen

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at TD Cowen in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $292.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock. TD Cowen’s price target indicates a potential upside of 10.17% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings downgraded CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $289.07.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME Group stock traded up $0.56 on Monday, hitting $265.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 402,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,555,084. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. CME Group has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $269.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $273.89. The company has a market capitalization of $95.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.24.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.96 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director Elizabeth Cook sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.11, for a total transaction of $140,055.00. Following the sale, the director owned 17,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,018,450.76. The trade was a 2.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Terrence Duffy sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.44, for a total value of $4,116,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 40,630 shares in the company, valued at $11,150,497.20. This represents a 26.96% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CME Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised 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 valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Bayban acquired a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Main Street Group LTD acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 1st quarter worth $32,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc operates global derivatives marketplaces that provide trading, clearing and settlement services for a broad range of financial and commodity products. Its exchange platforms enable participants to manage risk, discover prices and gain exposure to asset classes including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, metals, agricultural commodities and digital assets.

The company’s principal marketplaces include CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. Products are offered through futures and options contracts, with electronic trading available through CME Globex as well as exchange-based and privately negotiated transactions.