Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on CME Group (NASDAQ:CME)

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 106,311 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 4,208% compared to the average volume of 2,468 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, 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 transaction of $163,610.46. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 13,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,877,504.39. The trade was a 5.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 4,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.64, for a total transaction of $1,019,880.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 27,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,131,291.92. This trade represents a 14.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,028 shares of company stock worth $1,811,681 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CME. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 137.6% during the 2nd 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. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 70.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,427,107 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $544,157,000 after buying an additional 1,003,119 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in CME Group by 577.9% in the 2nd 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. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,283,196 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,038,676,000 after buying an additional 537,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in CME Group by 21,465.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 485,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,072,070,000 after buying an additional 483,618 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $244.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $195.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $224.47.

CME Group Stock Down 2.7 %

CME opened at $239.38 on Friday. CME Group has a 12 month low of $190.70 and a 12 month high of $249.02. The company has a market cap of $86.26 billion, a PE ratio of 25.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.56. 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 moving average of $227.46 and a 200 day moving average of $212.77.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.25 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CME Group will post 10.22 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 48.37%.

CME Group announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.