Sanctuary Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 6.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 50,732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,252 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $14,984,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. 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 valued at $64,965,000 after purchasing an additional 184,459 shares during the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $2,122,000. First Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $1,325,000. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 140,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,289,000 after buying an additional 3,931 shares during the period. Finally, MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CME Group by 138.8% in the fourth quarter. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,953,000 after acquiring an additional 4,152 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

CME Group Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $246.27 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $259.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $282.38. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.24 billion, a PE ratio of 21.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.25.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The company had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.80 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CME shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Erste Group Bank lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. UBS Group decreased their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.12.

About CME Group

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.