CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest fell sharply: as of March 31 it was down 15.6% to 4,696,093 shares (about 1.3% of shares) with a days-to-cover of 2.3, indicating reduced bearish positioning.
• Ownership activity: insiders sold 8,539 shares over the past 90 days (insiders own 0.30%), while institutional investors own 87.75% of CME, with Vanguard and State Street adding shares and Norges Bank initiating a large position.
• Analyst and income outlook: the stock has a consensus "Moderate Buy" and an average target of $309.94 versus a recent price of $287.33, and the company raised its quarterly dividend to $1.30 (annualized $5.20, ~1.8% yield).

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 4,696,093 shares, a decrease of 15.6% from the March 15th total of 5,566,514 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,035,239 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.90, for a total value of $91,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 24,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,647,194.10. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $224,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,539 shares of company stock valued at $2,713,821. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in 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 worth $9,802,366,000 after acquiring an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in 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 worth $4,408,747,000 after acquiring an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in 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 worth $1,344,776,000 after acquiring an additional 134,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in 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 worth $1,300,450,000 after acquiring an additional 130,848 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial raised their price target on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on CME Group in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $305.00 price target on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on CME Group from $344.00 to $343.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on CME Group from $266.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $309.94.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME Group stock traded down $8.89 during trading on Friday, reaching $287.33. 570,660 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,245,578. The company has a market capitalization of $103.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.26. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $285.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. CME Group has a 52-week low of $251.90 and a 52-week high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.75 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that CME Group will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a $1.30 dividend. This is an increase from CME Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.59%.

CME Group Company Profile

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.

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