Key Points
- Bryan Durkin sold 4,200 CME shares at an average price of $309.65 for about $1.30M, reducing his stake by 8.9% to 43,007 shares; the sale was disclosed in an SEC filing.
- CME Group raised its quarterly dividend to $1.30 (from $1.25), representing a $5.20 annualized payout and a ~1.7% yield, payable March 26 with record/ex-dividend date March 10 and a payout ratio of ~46.6%.
- Recent quarterly results beat expectations with EPS of $2.77 vs. $2.75 and revenue of $1.65B vs. $1.64B, with revenue up 8.1% year-over-year and a net margin of 62.45%.
CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) Director Bryan Durkin sold 4,200 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total transaction of $1,300,530.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 43,007 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.
CME Group Trading Up 1.9%
CME stock opened at $314.00 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $247.08 and a 52-week high of $314.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $113.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.14, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.27. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $284.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $274.97.
CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.75 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.CME Group's quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.
CME Group Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from CME Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group's dividend payout ratio is currently 46.59%.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On CME Group
Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,571,447,000. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in CME Group in the third quarter worth approximately $1,006,932,000. Strive Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in CME Group in the third quarter worth approximately $636,487,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in CME Group by 746.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $559,720,000 after acquiring an additional 1,807,491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at $217,656,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of research firms recently issued reports on CME. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of CME Group from $304.00 to $302.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $299.53.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on CME
About CME Group
(
Get Free Report)
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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