CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Sets New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Monday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $302.00 to $356.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. CME Group traded as high as $326.26 and last traded at $324.1840, with a volume of 229840 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $319.50.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $312.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $305.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a report on Friday, February 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.71.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $224,400.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total transaction of $1,300,530.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 43,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450 in the last ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CME Group

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 valued at $9,802,366,000 after acquiring an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the 4th 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. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,524,271,000 after purchasing an additional 319,899 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth approximately $1,571,447,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew 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 valued at $1,344,776,000 after buying an additional 134,242 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CME Group Trading Up 1.6%

The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $117.05 billion, a PE ratio of 29.04, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.27. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $287.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $275.99.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $0.02. CME Group had a net margin of 62.45% and a return on equity of 14.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.52 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 46.59%.

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.