3,297 Shares in CME Group Inc. $CME Bought by Vertrix Wealth Management LLC

Vertrix Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,297 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $974,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after purchasing an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after purchasing an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after purchasing an additional 134,242 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 2.8% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,812,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,300,450,000 after purchasing an additional 130,848 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about CME Group

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group (CME) to Outperform from Market Perform and kept a $305 price target, citing an attractive risk/reward setup after recent stock weakness. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Insider buying may also support sentiment: Director William Shepard bought 325 shares at about $230.57 per share, signaling confidence from management. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts still expect modest earnings growth ahead of CME’s next report, and one note lifted FY2027 EPS estimates slightly, reinforcing the view that fundamentals remain solid. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: CME is expected to report second-quarter results soon, with Wall Street looking for low-single-digit profit growth; investors may be waiting for the print before making bigger moves. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Goldman Sachs cut its price target on CME Group (CME) to $245 from $267 and maintained a Sell rating, which likely weighed on the stock. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: DraftKings’ move to bring its prediction-markets infrastructure in-house may reduce reliance on third-party platforms such as CME over time, creating a potential competitive headwind. Article Title

CME Group Stock Up 4.6%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $231.00 on Thursday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $269.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $284.88. 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 company has a market cap of $83.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.21.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.80 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 13th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $300.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,438,860.26. The trade was a 17.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost 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 currently owned by corporate insiders.

About CME Group

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.