CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $230.71 and last traded at $230.23, with a volume of 868435 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $227.56.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CME. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 11th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $244.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $245.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on CME Group from $212.00 to $213.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on CME Group from $219.00 to $231.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $224.47.

CME Group Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $223.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $210.81. The company has a market capitalization of $81.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.97, a P/E/G ratio of 5.30 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. CME Group had a net margin of 57.34% and a return on equity of 13.39%. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.25 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.22 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 48.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.92, for a total transaction of $89,168.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,587,935.64. This represents a 1.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.59, for a total transaction of $1,629,381.87. Following the transaction, the director now owns 55,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,932,706.13. The trade was a 12.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 15,621 shares of company stock valued at $3,441,063. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in CME Group by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,284,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,823,964,000 after purchasing an additional 142,692 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 537,758 shares in the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd increased its stake in CME Group by 1.1% in the first quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 4,009,068 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $863,112,000 after purchasing an additional 43,293 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.2% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 3,029,145 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $595,530,000 after buying an additional 94,302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,835,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $557,371,000 after buying an additional 176,004 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About CME Group

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.