Insider Buying: CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Director Buys 262 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• William Shepard, a director at CME Group, purchased 262 shares of the company on September 25th at an average price of $265.19 per share, increasing his ownership slightly by 0.10%.
• CME Group reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $2.96 for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations of $2.91, and achieved revenues of $1.69 billion, which is a 10.4% increase from the previous year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.25 per share, with a resulting annualized dividend of $5.00, reflecting a dividend yield of 1.8%.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) Director William Shepard acquired 262 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 258,459 shares of the company's stock, valued at $68,540,742.21. The trade was a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME traded up $1.55 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $270.28. The company had a trading volume of 1,534,818 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,796,199. The firm has a market cap of $97.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $270.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $270.87. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $213.94 and a 52 week high of $290.79.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%.The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. The company's revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group's payout ratio is currently 48.40%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CME shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of CME Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $275.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 8th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of CME Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Sunday, July 13th. Finally, Barclays set a $298.00 target price on CME Group and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $268.14.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in CME Group by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $9,695,313,000 after purchasing an additional 532,549 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 3.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,524,271,000 after buying an additional 319,899 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth $1,571,447,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,682,066 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,289,910,000 after buying an additional 92,925 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 9.7% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,091,401,000 after acquiring an additional 363,130 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.

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