CME Group FY2026 EPS Estimate Lowered by Erste Group Bank

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) – Equities researchers at Erste Group Bank reduced their FY2026 earnings per share estimates for shares of CME Group in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, July 15th. Erste Group Bank analyst H. Engel now expects that the financial services provider will post earnings of $12.21 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $12.24. Erste Group Bank has a “Hold” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for CME Group’s current full-year earnings is $12.18 per share. Erste Group Bank also issued estimates for CME Group’s FY2027 earnings at $12.94 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut shares of CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $292.12.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $245.05 on Monday. CME Group has a fifty-two week low of $218.31 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.91, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.25. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $258.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.15.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The company had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.80 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CME Group

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought 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 trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 44.37%.

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.