First Trust Advisors LP Cuts Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

First Trust Advisors LP lessened its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 9.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 299,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 30,240 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in CME Group were worth $81,009,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Caldwell Trust Co boosted its holdings in CME Group by 116.3% in the third quarter. Caldwell Trust Co now owns 93 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA purchased a new stake in CME Group during the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Financial Consulate Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Corundum Trust Company INC purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Erste Group Bank raised shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $302.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $278.37 per share, with a total value of $69,870.87. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 258,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,017,102.70. This represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total transaction of $6,738,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares in the company, valued at $17,737,468.20. This represents a 27.53% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME Group stock opened at $319.09 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $292.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $278.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $115.06 billion, a PE ratio of 28.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $248.53 and a one year high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 62.45% and a return on equity of 14.65%. CME Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.52 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.80%.

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.