Magellan Asset Management Ltd Has $96.25 Million Stake in CME Group Inc. $CME

Magellan Asset Management Ltd reduced its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 50.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 325,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 326,288 shares during the quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in CME Group were worth $96,246,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Asset Dedication LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 64.9% during the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 11,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,147,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 4.3% in the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 1,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $305,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Endowment Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 895 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $244,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CME. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on CME Group from $353.00 to $324.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.12.

CME Group Stock Down 3.1%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $237.41 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.25. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $256.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $281.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The business’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.80 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

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.