William Shepard, a director at CME Group (CME), recently bought 276 shares. The buy came to a total cost of $64,282, and increased his position by less than 1%.
Shepard is a quarterly buyer of shares, and picked up a similar dollar amount of shares in September, June, March, and January of 2024. Otherwise, several company insiders, including the company CIO, were slight sellers of shares over the past three months.
Overall, CME Group insiders own 0.5% of shares.
The stock exchange owner and operator is up 15% over the past year, slightly lagging the stock market’s rally over the same timeframe. The rally is about in-line with the 19% increase in revenues and 22% increase in earnings.
The real story is CME Group’s hefty 57% profit margin, which makes for a highly profitable company to own over time. Combined with their cash flow, CME Group is well positioned for paying a hefty dividend or buying back shares.
Action to take: CME Group already pays a big dividend, having paid out about 2% regular as well as a special dividend that more than doubled its payout for 2024. Investors can likely see further big payouts in the future given CME Group’s cash flows and industry positioning.
For traders, shares have been trending higher. The March $250 calls, last trading for about $2.55, could see mid-to-high double-digit returns over the coming months.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.