Yousif Capital Management LLC Sells 3,006 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 6.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 46,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,006 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $12,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,571,447,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in CME Group by 185.5% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,244,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $330,182,000 after purchasing an additional 808,740 shares during the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP bought a new position in CME Group in the second quarter valued at $164,648,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in CME Group by 1.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,695,313,000 after purchasing an additional 532,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in CME Group by 131,625.5% in the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 486,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,970,000 after buying an additional 485,698 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CME shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Monday. Argus decreased their price target on CME Group from $308.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Friday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on CME Group from $252.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Barclays increased their price objective on CME Group from $280.00 to $304.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $290.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 262 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $265.19 per share, for a total transaction of $69,479.78. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 258,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,540,742.21. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Harold Eugene Jr. Ford sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.53, for a total transaction of $263,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $287,511.23. This represents a 47.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $275.53 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $224.62 and a 12 month high of $290.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $272.52 and a 200-day moving average of $271.72. The company has a market capitalization of $99.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.28.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 58.84%.The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.45%.

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.