CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Gap Down - Time to Sell?

Key Points

• CME Group shares gapped down 4.1% at the open, falling from a prior close of $261.60 to about $252.18 as investors reacted to the move lower.
• Analysts remain generally constructive: the stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating with an average target price of $305.71, though several firms recently trimmed their price targets and one downgraded the stock to hold.
• The company still showed solid fundamentals, with Q1 earnings and revenue beating estimates; CME also declared a quarterly dividend of $1.30 per share, equal to a 2.1% annualized yield.

Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $261.60, but opened at $252.18. CME Group shares last traded at $252.2520, with a volume of 574,974 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $305.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on CME Group from $340.00 to $323.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $305.71.

CME Group Trading Down 4.1%

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $283.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $287.95. 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 market capitalization of $90.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.21.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group's payout ratio is 44.37%.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,438,860.26. The trade was a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 acquiring an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased 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 acquiring 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 increased 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 acquiring an additional 134,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased 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 acquiring an additional 130,848 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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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