CME Group’s (CME) Hold Rating Reaffirmed at Argus

Argus reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on CME. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen raised their target price on CME Group from $305.00 to $328.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Bank of America boosted their price target on CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $312.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $302.71.

CME Group Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of CME stock opened at $320.00 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group has a fifty-two week low of $248.53 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $290.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $277.01. The stock has a market cap of $115.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.24.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. CME Group had a net margin of 62.45% and a return on equity of 14.65%. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.52 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.80%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total value of $1,300,530.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at $13,317,117.55. This represents a 8.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was bought at an average price of $278.37 per share, for a total transaction of $69,870.87. Following the purchase, the director owned 258,710 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,017,102.70. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in CME Group by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after purchasing an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,524,271,000 after acquiring an additional 319,899 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,571,447,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 134,242 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies raised its price target to $356, backing upside as volumes and margins remain healthy. Jefferies Boosts Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: CME reported record monthly average daily volume (ADV) of 37.6M contracts in February (up 14% YoY) and new open interest/ADV records in its Dairy franchise — positive for fee revenue and long-term growth. Monthly ADV Record Dairy OI Record
• Positive Sentiment: Crypto tailwinds — technical signals for Bitcoin and an unfilled CME futures gap could lift crypto derivatives volumes, which helps CME’s products mix. Bitcoin Signals
• Neutral Sentiment: Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating — not a downgrade but not strongly bullish either. Argus Hold Reaffirmed
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data in early March appears inconsistent/erroneous (reported as 0 shares / NaN increases) and is not providing a clear signal. (Data noise — treat with caution.)
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro note: CME FedWatch signals show a higher probability the Fed will pause, which can reduce interest-rate-driven trading volatility (mixed impact on volumes). Fed More Likely To Stay Pat
• Negative Sentiment: CME rebuffed traders seeking compensation after a trading outage that affected settlement — a reputational and legal risk that could spook some clients and lead to vendor/trader friction. CME Rebuffs Traders
• Negative Sentiment: After the analyst upgrade and a new 1‑year high, near-term profit-taking and rotation have likely pushed the share price down despite the positive fundamental flow data (typical short-term market reaction).

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.