SlateStone Wealth LLC Acquires 76 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

SlateStone Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,896,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in CME Group by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,389,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,946,717,000 after purchasing an additional 104,697 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 89.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,280,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,923,047,000 after buying an additional 3,921,278 shares during the period. FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,081,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $947,821,000 after acquiring an additional 61,908 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,943,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $915,788,000 after acquiring an additional 403,920 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 24.7% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,135,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $728,260,000 after acquiring an additional 621,713 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, July 13th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of CME Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $261.93.

CME Group Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $274.60 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $193.25 and a twelve month high of $290.79. The stock has a market cap of $98.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.87 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company’s fifty day moving average is $276.29 and its 200-day moving average is $263.11.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were given a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.50, for a total value of $108,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 6,708 shares in the company, valued at $1,861,470. This represents a 5.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles P. Carey sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.56, for a total transaction of $817,680.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,824. The trade was a 35.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,400 shares of company stock worth $2,881,130 in the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.