GAMMA Investing LLC Cuts Stock Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

GAMMA Investing LLC trimmed its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 27.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,276 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,867,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CME. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,376,000 after buying an additional 22,692 shares during the last quarter. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 138.8% in the fourth quarter. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,953,000 after buying an additional 4,152 shares in the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 999,530 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $272,952,000 after buying an additional 10,602 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board acquired a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $3,368,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $264.32 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $95.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.42, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $249.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $280.90. 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 (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.96 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on CME shares. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Barclays lowered their target price on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Wall Street Zen cut CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $291.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.