CME Group Inc. $CME Stake Reduced by BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments

BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments reduced its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 34.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,200 shares during the quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments’ holdings in CME Group were worth $2,207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in CME Group by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after buying an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in CME Group by 103.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,018,000 after buying an additional 121,707 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in CME Group by 1,325.2% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,497,000 after buying an additional 21,918 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in CME Group by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,344,000 after acquiring an additional 7,397 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on CME shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Erste Group Bank lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their price target on CME Group from $340.00 to $316.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $305.29.

CME Group Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $255.94 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $244.56 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company has a market cap of $92.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $286.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $288.36.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its 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 return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The business had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.80 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. This represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold a total of 44,044 shares of company stock valued at $13,297,507 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.