Militia Capital Management LLC Invests $2.56 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Militia Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 8,660 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,558,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 2,075.0% during the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 64.9% in the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $267.79 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $250.89 and a 200 day moving average of $281.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.96 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS 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 paid 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 yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CME. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen lowered CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $291.81.

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.