CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.03, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.82% and a net margin of 56.98%. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.25 EPS.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME traded down $0.22 on Thursday, reaching $226.92. The stock had a trading volume of 49,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,929,167. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $218.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $208.66. CME Group has a 1-year low of $190.70 and a 1-year high of $230.12. The company has a market cap of $81.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.76 and a beta of 0.55.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 52.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of the stock in a transaction on Sunday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total transaction of $163,610.46. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 13,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,877,504.39. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of the stock in a transaction on Sunday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total transaction of $163,610.46. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 13,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,877,504.39. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.59, for a total value of $1,629,381.87. Following the sale, the director now owns 55,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,932,706.13. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on CME shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on CME Group from $212.00 to $213.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on CME Group from $193.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America boosted their target price on CME Group from $177.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on CME Group from $187.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on CME Group from $228.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Four 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $220.87.

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.