Timothy S. Bitsberger Sells 1,000 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Stock

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Director Timothy S. Bitsberger sold 1,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.96, for a total value of $226,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,589 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,403,279.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

CME Group Trading Down 0.8 %

CME stock opened at $225.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.70, a P/E/G ratio of 7.76 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $220.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $209.34. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $190.70 and a fifty-two week high of $230.36.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.82% and a net margin of 56.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.25 earnings per share. Analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.37%.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CME. Capital International Investors increased its position in CME Group by 24.1% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,809,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,403,557,000 after purchasing an additional 3,069,806 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 137.6% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,260,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $444,443,000 after purchasing an additional 1,309,097 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $156,631,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 577.9% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 645,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,872,000 after buying an additional 550,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in CME Group by 11.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,283,196 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,038,676,000 after buying an additional 537,758 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $219.00 to $231.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $193.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $210.00 to $233.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on CME Group in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. They set a “hold” rating and a $221.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on CME Group from $177.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $222.73.

CME Group Company Profile

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.