CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Coverage Initiated at TD Cowen

Analysts at TD Cowen began coverage on shares of CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set a “hold” rating and a $221.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. TD Cowen’s target price points to a potential upside of 1.24% from the stock’s previous close.

CME has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America cut CME Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $212.00 to $177.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on CME Group from $212.00 to $213.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on CME Group from $193.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on CME Group from $187.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $212.54.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME opened at $218.30 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $78.60 billion, a PE ratio of 24.84, a P/E/G ratio of 8.74 and a beta of 0.55. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $209.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $207.56. CME Group has a 1 year low of $190.70 and a 1 year high of $223.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.03. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.82% and a net margin of 56.98%. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.30 EPS. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Sunday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total transaction of $163,610.46. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 13,261 shares in the company, valued at $2,877,504.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other CME Group news, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Sunday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total value of $163,610.46. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 13,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,877,504.39. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 55,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,932,706.13. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of CME Group by 24.1% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,809,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,403,557,000 after acquiring an additional 3,069,806 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of CME Group by 137.6% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,260,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $444,443,000 after acquiring an additional 1,309,097 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in CME Group by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,589,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,072,654,000 after buying an additional 1,172,575 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in CME Group during the first quarter worth approximately $156,631,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in CME Group by 577.9% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 645,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,872,000 after buying an additional 550,133 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

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.