L & S Advisors Inc Sells 22,595 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

L & S Advisors Inc reduced its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 62.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,728 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 22,595 shares during the quarter. L & S Advisors Inc’s holdings in CME Group were worth $3,709,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Essex Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 4,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,245,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Syon Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 6.9% during the third quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 4,251 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,149,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in CME Group by 1.5% in the third quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 109,987 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,718,000 after acquiring an additional 1,647 shares during the last quarter. First National Bank of Omaha acquired a new stake in CME Group in the third quarter worth about $3,872,000. Finally, Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC raised its holdings in CME Group by 130.7% during the 3rd quarter. Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC now owns 5,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,863 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays increased their target price on CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Bank of America boosted their target price on CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.53.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $302.55 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $109.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.27. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $246.68 and a one year high of $309.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $281.86 and its 200-day moving average is $274.50.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.52 EPS. Equities analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.80%.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 251 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $278.37 per share, for a total transaction of $69,870.87. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 258,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,017,102.70. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total value of $6,738,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CME Group Company 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.