CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Purchased by MAI Capital Management

MAI Capital Management lifted its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 52,306 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the quarter. MAI Capital Management’s holdings in CME Group were worth $13,876,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 122.2% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 612.5% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in CME Group during the first quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in CME Group during the first quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CME. Erste Group Bank cut shares of CME Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, July 13th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $305.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $261.93.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director Charles P. Carey sold 500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.35, for a total transaction of $132,675.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,300,215. The trade was a 9.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total transaction of $3,229,407.12. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,734,436.80. This trade represents a 40.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $266.51 on Monday. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $207.75 and a twelve month high of $290.79. The company has a market capitalization of $96.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 0.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $275.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $269.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a net margin of 58.48% and a return on equity of 14.60%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 48.40%.

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.