CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

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

CME has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 6th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after buying an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter valued at about $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in CME Group by 2.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 134,242 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME opened at $271.54 on Wednesday. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $250.82 and a 200-day moving average of $279.97. The stock has a market cap of $97.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 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.