CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Receives $215.70 Average Target Price from Analysts

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $215.70.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $210.00 target price (down from $235.00) on shares of CME Group in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $229.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on CME Group from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus upped their target price on CME Group from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $225.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CME. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $959,260,000. Capital Wealth Planning LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $253,563,000. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in CME Group by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,589,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,072,654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,172,575 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in CME Group by 31.5% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,858,967 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $972,863,000 after acquiring an additional 1,163,103 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in CME Group by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,615,243 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $761,371,000 after acquiring an additional 1,048,511 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of CME stock opened at $206.48 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market cap of $74.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.49. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $214.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $211.65. CME Group has a 1 year low of $175.73 and a 1 year high of $223.80.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.10. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 57.83%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.92 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that CME Group will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.86%.

CME Group Company Profile

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.