CME Group Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:CME)

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors acquired 106,311 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 4,208% compared to the average daily volume of 2,468 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 13,261 shares in the company, valued at $2,877,504.39. This represents a 5.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 4,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.64, for a total value of $1,019,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,131,291.92. This represents a 14.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,028 shares of company stock valued at $1,811,681 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 11.3% during the 2nd 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 during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 3,029,145 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $595,530,000 after purchasing an additional 94,302 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,835,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $557,371,000 after purchasing an additional 176,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in CME Group by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,514,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $554,707,000 after acquiring an additional 380,071 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CME shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $235.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America upped their price target on CME Group from $177.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on CME Group from $210.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on CME Group from $245.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $224.47.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock traded down $4.41 during trading on Friday, hitting $241.61. 1,682,273 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,952,221. The stock has a market cap of $87.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.56. CME Group has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $249.02. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $212.77.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.65 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 57.34% and a return on equity of 13.39%. The company’s revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.25 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that CME Group will post 10.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. CME Group’s payout ratio is 48.37%.

CME Group Company Profile

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.