4,353 Shares in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Bought by Crux Wealth Advisors

Crux Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 4,353 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,011,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CME. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 108.7% in the 4th quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 12,390 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,949,000 after buying an additional 6,453 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at $6,144,000. Unified Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $503,000. Spire Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 37.4% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 1,320 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc boosted its position in CME Group by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 326,098 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $75,730,000 after purchasing an additional 52,862 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total transaction of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,873 shares in the company, valued at $5,686,980. The trade was a 31.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496 over the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME Group stock opened at $261.54 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $255.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $239.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $94.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.05, a P/E/G ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $273.42.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. On average, research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 51.71%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Raymond James raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $247.47.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.