CME Group - CME Stock Forecast, Price & News

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 products. The company also provides clearing house services, including clearing, settling, and guaranteeing futures and options contracts, and cleared swaps products traded through its exchanges; and trade processing and risk mitigation services. In addition, the company offers a range of market data services, including real-time and historical data services. It serves professional traders, financial institutions, institutional and individual investors, corporations, manufacturers, producers, governments, and central banks. The company was formerly known as Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. and changed its name to CME Group Inc. in July 2007. CME Group Inc. was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME traded down $5.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $202.07. 1,847,173 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,621,431. The business's 50 day moving average is $203.18 and its 200-day moving average is $218.17. CME Group has a 1 year low of $185.79 and a 1 year high of $256.94. The company has a market capitalization of $72.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 60.43% and a return on equity of 9.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.64 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group will post 7.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 8th. CME Group's payout ratio is 49.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $242.00 to $226.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 28th. Atlantic Securities upgraded shares of CME Group from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $235.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities assumed coverage on shares of CME Group in a research note on Tuesday. They set a "sell" rating and a $171.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Credit Suisse Group cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $218.00 to $216.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $231.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 4,901 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.88, for a total transaction of $999,215.88. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,140 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,756,583.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.