CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Purchased by Czech National Bank

Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,554 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in CME Group were worth $25,965,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.7% in the second quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 1,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $392,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 3,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $827,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its position in shares of CME Group by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Atlatl Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Atlatl Advisers LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $574,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1248 Management LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter. 1248 Management LLC now owns 180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Erste Group Bank upgraded CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings raised CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $304.06.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $293.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $248.53 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $301.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $281.25.

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. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.52 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total transaction of $1,300,530.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at $13,317,117.55. This represents a 8.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 3,291 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.37, for a total transaction of $1,097,120.67. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 7,192 shares in the company, valued at $2,397,597.04. This represents a 31.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,539 shares of company stock worth $2,713,821. 0.30% of the stock is currently 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.