CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $319.09, but opened at $309.26. CME Group shares last traded at $304.9730, with a volume of 652,433 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Bank of America upped their target price on CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Erste Group Bank raised CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on CME Group from $302.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.71.

CME Group Stock Down 1.0%

The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $294.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $278.44. The company has a market capitalization of $109.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.24.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. CME Group had a net margin of 62.45% and a return on equity of 14.65%. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.52 EPS. CME Group’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. CME Group’s payout ratio is 46.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total transaction of $1,300,530.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 43,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $224,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,248 shares of company stock valued at $1,616,700. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Caldwell Trust Co raised its holdings in CME Group by 116.3% in the 3rd quarter. Caldwell Trust Co now owns 93 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Asset Dedication LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 64.9% during the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc is a global markets company that operates some of the world’s largest and most liquid derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. The firm offers futures and options contracts across a broad range of asset classes — including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals — and serves a diverse client base of institutional investors, commercial hedgers, brokers and retail participants.

The company’s core services include electronic trading on the CME Globex platform, central clearing through CME Clearing, and distribution of market data, indexes and analytics.