CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Price Target Raised to $230.00 at Bank of America

CME Group (NASDAQ:CMEFree Report) had its price objective hoisted by Bank of America from $226.00 to $230.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an underperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on CME. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $291.81.

View Our Latest Research Report on CME

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $254.32 on Thursday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $255.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $281.41. CME Group has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The company has a market cap of $92.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.57, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.25.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CMEGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.96 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 12.17 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 value of $10,447,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CME. Norges Bank bought a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,523,241,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in CME Group by 746.4% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $559,720,000 after purchasing an additional 1,807,491 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in CME Group by 39.1% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 1,130,587 shares in the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $217,656,000. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth approximately $164,648,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting CME Group

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

CME Group Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

Analyst Recommendations for CME Group (NASDAQ:CME)

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