CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Director William Shepard Purchases 325 Shares

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director William Shepard bought 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

CME Group Trading Down 1.1%

NASDAQ:CME traded down $2.42 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $218.58. 5,063,457 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,714,862. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.21. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $273.13 and its 200-day moving average is $285.85. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CME shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler set a $320.00 target price on CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.24.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Asset Dedication LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 64.9% during the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Hedge funds and other 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.