Fiduciary Alliance LLC Cuts Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Fiduciary Alliance LLC decreased its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 16.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,903 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,223 shares during the quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $6,206,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 78.7% during the first quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 9,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,796,000 after purchasing an additional 4,169 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its position in CME Group by 27.9% during the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 8,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the last quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 1,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC now owns 33,110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,779,000 after buying an additional 1,961 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,167,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $302.24.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. This represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $231.45 on Thursday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $231.30 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $276.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $286.52. The stock has a market cap of $83.87 billion, a PE ratio of 19.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.21.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 2.2%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

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.