Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Increases Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 475.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 13,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,916 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $3,609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Caldwell Trust Co boosted its holdings in CME Group by 116.3% during the 3rd quarter. Caldwell Trust Co now owns 93 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Financial Consulate Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Sagard Holdings Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on CME Group from $305.00 to $328.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Erste Group Bank upgraded CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $310.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $224,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at $809,700. The trade was a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.90, for a total value of $91,770.00. Following the sale, the director owned 24,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,647,194.10. The trade was a 1.19% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 8,539 shares of company stock worth $2,713,821 in the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $308.57 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $305.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $283.58. The stock has a market cap of $110.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.65, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.26. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $248.53 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The firm’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.52 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.59%.

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.