Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC Sells 8,420 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC lowered its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 76.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,545 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,420 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $701,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,643,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,190,661,000 after buying an additional 400,737 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 9.7% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,091,401,000 after buying an additional 363,130 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in CME Group by 3.0% in the second quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,920,046 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $804,823,000 after buying an additional 84,005 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in CME Group by 29.9% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,818,590 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $747,744,000 after buying an additional 648,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 10.3% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,783,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $735,539,000 after buying an additional 260,065 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $267.85 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $265.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $272.22. 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 $96.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.95, a P/E/G ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were paid a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.45%.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director Harold Eugene Jr. Ford sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.53, for a total value of $263,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $287,511.23. This represents a 47.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director William R. Shepard bought 262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 258,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,540,742.21. This represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 14,043 shares of company stock valued at $3,791,486. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on CME shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $312.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $285.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $266.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $285.19.

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.