CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Short Interest Update

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,420,000 shares, an increase of 18.2% from the March 15th total of 3,740,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,750,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in CME Group by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,625 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $782,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in shares of CME Group by 5.0% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Lantz Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.1% in the first quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $982,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CME Group by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 528 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Finally, Transcend Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,995 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $631,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $206.23 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $214.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $211.60. The stock has a market cap of $74.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.49. CME Group has a fifty-two week low of $175.73 and a fifty-two week high of $223.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $1.15 per share. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. CME Group’s payout ratio is 51.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on CME shares. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “sell” rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays increased their target price on CME Group from $225.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $210.00 target price (down previously from $235.00) on shares of CME Group in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $229.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Argus increased their price target on CME Group from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $215.70.

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.