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

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,480,000 shares, a drop of 7.1% from the January 15th total of 4,820,000 shares. Approximately 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,070,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total value of $2,888,378.64. Following the sale, the insider now owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CME Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CME. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.6% during the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 1,769 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $411,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. TFC Financial Management Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. TFC Financial Management Inc. now owns 592 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in CME Group by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $549,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $257.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $235.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $255.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $234.13.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $247.86 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.06, a P/E/G ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The business’s fifty day moving average is $236.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $226.68. CME Group has a 1 year low of $190.70 and a 1 year high of $253.53.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 57.34%. On average, research analysts forecast that CME Group will post 10.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.