Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Sells 853 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,714 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 853 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,575,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CME. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 24.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,859,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381 shares during the last quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the first quarter valued at about $210,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 63.0% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 105,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,867,000 after acquiring an additional 40,592 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.1% in the first quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,533 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $672,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 10.3% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 4,451 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,181,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on CME Group from $303.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on CME Group from $283.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on CME Group from $276.00 to $266.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on CME Group from $281.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $283.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $265.19 per share, for a total transaction of $69,479.78. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 258,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,540,742.21. The trade was a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total value of $3,229,407.12. Following the sale, the insider owned 17,440 shares in the company, valued at $4,734,436.80. The trade was a 40.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,043 shares of company stock worth $3,527,956 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $271.28 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $213.94 and a fifty-two week high of $290.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.26, a PEG ratio of 5.72 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $268.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $271.35.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. 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.