William Shepard, a director at CME Group (CME), recently bought 274 shares. The buy increased his position by less than 1%, and came to a total cost of $71,995.
Shepard was also a buyer in January, paying $324,198 for 1,422 shares. And Shepard has been a buyer in the past two years. Other company insiders, including the CEO and CIO, have been smaller sellers of shares over the last two years.
Overall, CME Group insiders own 0.5% of shares.
The owner and operator of financial exchanges is up 24% over the past year, beating the returns of the S&P 500 by about 3 to 1.
Revenues are up 6% on rising trading volume, but more importantly, CME sports a massive 57.6% profit margin. And CME Group’s financial exchanges have a high barrier to entry.
Even with the rally in shares, CME Group is fairly valued at about 24 times forward earnings.
Action to take: Shares have been in a steady uptrend since the summer, and the stock is barely off its highs with the rest of the stock market selling off. Investors may like shares here, as earnings may increase with market volatility.
At current prices, CME Group also pays a .41% dividend.
For traders, the June $280 calls, last trading for about $3.90, could see mid-double-digit returns on a continued trend higher for shares into the summer.
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.