CME Group’s (CME) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at TD Cowen

TD Cowen reiterated their buy rating on shares of CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $292.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.75.

CME Group Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $281.29 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $258.76 and its 200 day moving average is $278.38. The stock has a market cap of $101.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.24. CME Group has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.96 EPS. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that CME Group will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director William Shepard purchased 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 21,954.4% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 131,243,023 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,982,397,000 after buying an additional 130,647,934 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of CME Group by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after acquiring an additional 56,725 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in CME Group by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after acquiring an additional 134,242 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Company Profile

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.