Prosperity Consulting Group LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Prosperity Consulting Group LLC lessened its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 6.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 287 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $930,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CME. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on CME Group from $269.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $269.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $256.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total value of $2,888,378.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 3,984 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.47, for a total value of $997,872.48. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,046 shares in the company, valued at $6,774,211.62. This trade represents a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $266.30 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $258.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $241.95. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.70 and a twelve month high of $273.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.54, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 51.71%.

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.