CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Director Bryan Durkin Sells 4,200 Shares of Stock

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director Bryan Durkin sold 4,200 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total transaction of $1,300,530.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME opened at $314.00 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $284.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $274.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $247.08 and a twelve month high of $314.19. The company has a market cap of $113.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.27.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 46.59%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CME Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth about $1,571,447,000. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in CME Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,006,932,000. Strive Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $636,487,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Finally, Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $217,656,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their target price on CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.53.

About CME Group

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.