CME Group’s (CME) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at Raymond James Financial

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by Raymond James Financial in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $320.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. Raymond James Financial’s price target points to a potential upside of 35.48% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler set a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. TD Cowen decreased their price target 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. UBS Group reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $300.94.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME traded up $5.20 on Thursday, reaching $236.20. 2,227,118 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,740,268. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $269.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $284.88. The stock has a market cap of $85.59 billion, a PE ratio of 20.14, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.21. CME Group has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.80 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that CME Group will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at $16,606,111.30. This represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CME. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in CME Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,006,932,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of CME Group by 746.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,720,000 after buying an additional 1,807,491 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 39.1% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,019,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,187,290,000 after buying an additional 1,130,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $217,656,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.