Terrence A. Duffy Sells 40,000 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Stock

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.91, for a total value of $8,436,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 67,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,226,934.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $207.48 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $175.73 and a 12-month high of $223.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $214.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $211.64.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.45% and a net margin of 56.84%. The company had revenue of $1.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 9.72 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.33%.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Naples Global Advisors LLC boosted its stake in CME Group by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 2,072 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $436,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,823,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in CME Group by 2.3% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 1,041,526 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $224,230,000 after acquiring an additional 23,340 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $1,074,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in CME Group by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,118,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $223,867,000 after acquiring an additional 46,021 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on CME Group from $198.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $222.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $209.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on CME Group from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on CME Group from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $217.80.

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.