Clear Trail Advisors LLC Sells 4,808 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Clear Trail Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 31,864 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,808 shares during the period. CME Group accounts for about 1.6% of Clear Trail Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Clear Trail Advisors LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $9,411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in CME Group by 1.7% in 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 during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during 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 buying an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 134,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 130,848 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares in the company, 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 this link. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CME Group Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of CME opened at $245.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.85 billion, a PE ratio of 20.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.21. The company’s fifty day moving average is $278.53 and its 200 day moving average is $287.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $244.56 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The business had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.80 earnings per share. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CME shares. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded CME Group from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $302.24.

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.