Capital International Ltd. CA Cuts Stock Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Capital International Ltd. CA reduced its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 56.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 21,908 shares during the quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA’s holdings in CME Group were worth $4,704,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 345.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 237,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,965,000 after purchasing an additional 184,459 shares in the last quarter. Dover Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 95.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dover Advisors LLC now owns 5,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 2,734 shares in the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 50,977 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,773,000 after purchasing an additional 12,503 shares in the last quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ now owns 114,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,913,000 after purchasing an additional 1,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter worth about $1,325,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CME. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on CME Group from $313.00 to $329.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $275.00 to $267.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods began coverage on CME Group in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $305.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $305.29.

CME Group Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of CME stock opened at $257.40 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.27 billion, a PE ratio of 21.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.21. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $244.56 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The business has a 50-day moving average of $288.35 and a 200 day moving average of $288.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.80 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 3,291 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.37, for a total transaction of $1,097,120.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 7,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,397,597.04. This represents a 31.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. The trade was a 17.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 44,044 shares of company stock valued at $13,297,507 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc is a global markets company that operates some of the world’s largest and most liquid derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. The firm offers futures and options contracts across a broad range of asset classes — including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals — and serves a diverse client base of institutional investors, commercial hedgers, brokers and retail participants.

The company’s core services include electronic trading on the CME Globex platform, central clearing through CME Clearing, and distribution of market data, indexes and analytics.