CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Stock Keeps Buy Rating at TD Cowen

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by investment analysts at TD Cowen in a research report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $292.00 price target on the financial services provider's stock. TD Cowen's target price points to a potential upside of 10.31% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Eight investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $289.07.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:CME traded up $0.23 on Monday, reaching $264.71. 247,717 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,554,190. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $269.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $273.89. The firm has a market cap of $95.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.24. CME Group has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.96 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that CME Group will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Terrence Duffy sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.44, for a total transaction of $4,116,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 40,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,150,497.20. This represents a 26.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Elizabeth Cook sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.11, for a total value of $140,055.00. Following the sale, the director owned 17,916 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,018,450.76. This represents a 2.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in CME Group by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after acquiring an additional 56,725 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in CME Group by 2.8% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 134,242 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake 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 valued at $1,187,290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130,587 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in CME Group by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,197,668 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,146,593,000 after acquiring an additional 87,411 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc operates global derivatives marketplaces that provide trading, clearing and settlement services for a broad range of financial and commodity products. Its exchange platforms enable participants to manage risk, discover prices and gain exposure to asset classes including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, metals, agricultural commodities and digital assets.

The company's principal marketplaces include CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. Products are offered through futures and options contracts, with electronic trading available through CME Globex as well as exchange-based and privately negotiated transactions.