CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Sold by South Dakota Investment Council

South Dakota Investment Council reduced its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 95.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 90 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,080 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in CME Group were worth $27,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its holdings in CME Group by 2,075.0% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 64.9% in the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $291.81.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $267.79 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $218.31 and a 52 week high of $329.16. 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 has a market capitalization of $96.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.25. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $250.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.05.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. This represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.