Prosperity Consulting Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Prosperity Consulting Group LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 918.4% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,035 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $2,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in CME Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,802,366,000 after acquiring an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in 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 worth $4,408,747,000 after acquiring an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $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 valued at $1,344,776,000 after purchasing an additional 134,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of CME Group by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,179,858,000 after purchasing an additional 222,890 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $245.05 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $88.80 billion, a PE ratio of 20.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.25. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $258.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $282.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The company’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.80 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.21 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on CME shares. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $292.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.