Perigon Wealth Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Perigon Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 0.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 42,377 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $11,242,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in CME Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,243,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,952,273,000 after purchasing an additional 326,623 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,389,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,946,717,000 after acquiring an additional 104,697 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 89.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,280,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,923,047,000 after acquiring an additional 3,921,278 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at $1,107,389,000. Finally, FIL Ltd raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,081,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $947,821,000 after acquiring an additional 61,908 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CME shares. Raymond James Financial raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $223.00 to $211.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $279.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $258.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.28, for a total transaction of $271,280.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,915 shares in the company, valued at $790,781.20. This represents a 25.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Larry G. Gerdes sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.10, for a total transaction of $528,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 38,651 shares in the company, valued at $10,207,729.10. This represents a 4.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,400 shares of company stock worth $3,680,610 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ CME opened at $273.03 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $274.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $256.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market cap of $98.39 billion, a PE ratio of 27.47, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.45. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $192.11 and a 12 month high of $290.79.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. CME Group had a net margin of 57.71% and a return on equity of 14.03%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.50 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 50.30%.

CME Group Company Profile

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.