Raymond James Financial Issues Positive Forecast for CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Stock Price

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) had its price objective hoisted by Raymond James Financial from $310.00 to $320.00 in a research note published on Monday morning,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $333.00 to $347.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.65.

CME Group Stock Up 1.1%

CME stock opened at $308.57 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $305.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $283.58. CME Group has a 12 month low of $248.53 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company has a market capitalization of $110.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.26.

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.59%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.90, for a total transaction of $91,770.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 24,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,647,194.10. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 3,291 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.37, for a total transaction of $1,097,120.67. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 7,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,397,597.04. This represents a 31.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,539 shares of company stock valued at $2,713,821. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CME Group

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,802,366,000 after buying an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after buying an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,344,776,000 after buying an additional 134,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,812,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,300,450,000 after buying an additional 130,848 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.