Charles P. Carey Sells 3,000 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Stock

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director Charles P. Carey sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.56, for a total transaction of $817,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,824. This trade represents a 35.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

CME Group Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $277.87 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.13 billion, a PE ratio of 28.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $190.70 and a 52-week high of $286.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $266.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $247.92.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. CME Group’s payout ratio is 50.30%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in CME Group by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,643,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,190,661,000 after buying an additional 400,737 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,389,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,946,717,000 after buying an additional 104,697 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in CME Group by 89.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,280,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,923,047,000 after buying an additional 3,921,278 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,107,389,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its holdings in CME Group by 9.7% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,091,401,000 after buying an additional 363,130 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Erste Group Bank raised shares of CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $269.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $269.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $256.80.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.