Julie Winkler Sells 11,592 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Stock

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total transaction of $2,888,378.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 21,885 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,453,085.45. The trade was a 34.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME traded up $2.38 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $247.86. 1,316,699 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,848,600. 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 market cap of $89.32 billion, a PE ratio of 26.06, a P/E/G ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 0.57. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $190.70 and a fifty-two week high of $253.53. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $236.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $226.35.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is a boost from CME Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. CME Group's payout ratio is 48.37%.

CME Group announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program 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 repurchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on CME Group from $235.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup downgraded CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $234.13.

Institutional Trading of CME Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CME. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $1,107,389,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 89.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,280,785 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,923,047,000 after purchasing an additional 3,921,278 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $871,063,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 70.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,427,107 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $544,157,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 69.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 2,435,823 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $565,671,000 after purchasing an additional 996,498 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.