Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Sells 326 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. reduced its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 16.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 326 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $467,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CME. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in CME Group by 24.5% during the 1st 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. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $726,000. Golden State Equity Partners lifted its holdings in CME Group by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 3,538 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $939,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in CME Group by 3,662.5% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 602 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $160,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HBK Sorce Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $227,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on CME shares. TD Cowen lifted their price target on CME Group from $288.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on CME Group from $312.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on CME Group from $262.00 to $263.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $284.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 262 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly 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 position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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. This represents a 40.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,043 shares of company stock worth $3,527,956. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CME Group Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of CME opened at $268.90 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $213.94 and a 52-week high of $290.79. The business’s fifty day moving average is $266.56 and its 200-day moving average is $271.57. 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 firm has a market cap of $96.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.06, a PEG ratio of 6.16 and a beta of 0.41.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 58.84%.The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.68 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

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 $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.40%.

CME Group 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.