Insider Selling: CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) CEO Sells 35,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy sold 35,000 shares on May 15 at an average price of $298.51, totaling about $10.45 million. After the sale, he still directly owned 55,630 shares.
• The stock was trading higher, up 2.1% to $305.12, after the insider sale was disclosed. CME remains a large, low-beta company with a market cap of about $110.56 billion.
• Fundamentals and shareholder returns remain solid: CME recently beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, and it announced a quarterly dividend of $1.30 per share, implying a 1.7% annualized yield.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) CEO Terrence Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

CME Group Trading Up 2.1%

NASDAQ CME traded up $6.26 on Monday, reaching $305.12. 1,844,219 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,304,357. The business's fifty day moving average price is $298.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $288.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $257.17 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. The company 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.26 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. CME Group's payout ratio is 44.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CME Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CME. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in CME Group by 103.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,018,000 after acquiring an additional 121,707 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in CME Group by 1,325.2% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $6,497,000 after acquiring an additional 21,918 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in CME Group by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $79,344,000 after acquiring an additional 7,397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CME shares. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on CME Group from $275.00 to $267.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered CME Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Sunday, April 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $305.29.

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.

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