Piper Sandler Cuts CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) Price Target to $295.00

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) had its price target reduced by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from $329.00 to $295.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target indicates a potential upside of 21.10% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on CME. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Erste Group Bank cut CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen lowered CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.12.

CME Group Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of CME opened at $243.61 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.27 billion, a PE ratio of 20.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.25. CME Group has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $260.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.82.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.80 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that CME Group will post 12.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in CME Group by 11.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,660,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 103.1% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,018,000 after purchasing an additional 121,707 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of CME Group by 1,325.2% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,497,000 after purchasing an additional 21,918 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth about $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 7,397 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

About CME Group

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.