CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Sold by Polar Asset Management Partners Inc.

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. trimmed its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 98.5% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 54,802 shares during the period. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $243,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 746.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $559,720,000 after purchasing an additional 1,807,491 shares during the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd acquired a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $217,656,000. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new position in CME Group in the second quarter worth about $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in CME Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,802,366,000 after buying an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Price Performance

CME opened at $255.36 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $253.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.17. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $218.31 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The firm has a market cap of $92.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.25.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.96 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen cut CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. Erste Group Bank lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings downgraded CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Barclays dropped their price target on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.81.

CME Group 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.