Leonteq Securities AG Sells 2,267 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Leonteq Securities AG lowered its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 54.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,267 shares during the quarter. Leonteq Securities AG’s holdings in CME Group were worth $554,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Sanders Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the third quarter valued at about $1,006,932,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 746.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,720,000 after acquiring an additional 1,807,491 shares during the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $217,656,000. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth about $164,648,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CME shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. UBS Group restated an “overweight” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $300.94.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME opened at $236.60 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $267.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $284.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.73 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.25. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.80 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. This represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.