CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director Bryan T. Durkin Sells 7,593 Shares of Stock

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.59, for a total value of $1,629,381.87. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 55,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,932,706.13. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

CME Group Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of CME opened at $212.64 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.70 and a twelve month high of $223.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.51 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $202.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $207.41.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.03. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.82% and a net margin of 56.98%. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.16%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.33%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CME Group

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CME. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,451,194 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,044,821,000 after acquiring an additional 215,044 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 24.1% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,809,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,403,557,000 after purchasing an additional 3,069,806 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,589,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,072,654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,172,575 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.9% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,793,988 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,462,678,000 after purchasing an additional 189,842 shares during the period. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC grew its holdings in CME Group by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,667,384 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,193,551,000 after purchasing an additional 23,583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CME. Barclays upped their price objective on CME Group from $208.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Bank of America cut shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $212.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $212.00 to $213.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $193.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on CME Group from $187.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CME Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $209.73.

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.