CME Group Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:CME)

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 106,311 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 4,208% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,468 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on CME Group from $219.00 to $231.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on CME Group from $195.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price target on CME Group from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on CME Group from $245.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $235.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Four equities 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $224.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.92, for a total transaction of $89,168.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Sunday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total value of $163,610.46. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 13,261 shares in the company, valued at $2,877,504.39. The trade was a 5.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,028 shares of company stock valued at $1,811,681. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 21.2% during the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 48,205 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,477,000 after purchasing an additional 8,443 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 12.2% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 30,555 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,156,000 after buying an additional 3,325 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 40.8% in the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,742 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,112,000 after buying an additional 3,112 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 149.4% in the second quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 23,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,671,000 after buying an additional 14,234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 18.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,826,501 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $403,017,000 after buying an additional 283,171 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME traded down $4.41 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $241.61. The company had a trading volume of 1,682,273 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,952,221. 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 has a market cap of $87.07 billion, a PE ratio of 25.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $227.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $212.77. CME Group has a 1-year low of $190.70 and a 1-year high of $249.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.25 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 10.22 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 48.37%.

CME Group declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.