CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Short Interest Update

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,830,000 shares, a growth of 5.5% from the October 15th total of 3,630,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,780,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.92, for a total transaction of $89,168.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 25,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,587,935.64. The trade was a 1.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.59, for a total value of $1,629,381.87. Following the transaction, the director now owns 55,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,932,706.13. This represents a 12.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,621 shares of company stock valued at $3,441,063 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CME Group

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in CME Group by 24.1% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,809,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,403,557,000 after purchasing an additional 3,069,806 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.8% in 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 buying an additional 142,692 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 537,758 shares in the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 43,293 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in 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 worth $595,530,000 after buying an additional 94,302 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CME. Citigroup upped their price objective on CME Group from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $221.00 price objective on the stock. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $244.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $177.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $224.47.

CME Group Stock Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:CME traded up $2.76 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $230.32. The company had a trading volume of 1,054,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,908,102. CME Group has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $230.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $83.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.93, a PEG ratio of 5.20 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. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $222.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $210.53.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 57.34%. The business’s revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.25 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 10.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.37%.

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.