Wealth Alliance Reduces Stock Position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Wealth Alliance reduced its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 103 shares during the quarter. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in CME Group were worth $280,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CME. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in CME Group by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,625 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $782,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 4.3% during the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,160 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Lantz Financial LLC grew its stake in CME Group by 1.1% in the first quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $982,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich increased its holdings in CME Group by 0.7% in the second quarter. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich now owns 7,667 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greystone Financial Group LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Greystone Financial Group LLC now owns 3,282 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $691,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America downgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $212.00 to $177.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $208.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $187.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $212.00 to $213.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $209.73.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME opened at $214.76 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $223.80. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $207.46 and its 200-day moving average is $207.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.85 and a beta of 0.55.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 56.98% and a return on equity of 12.82%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.30 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 52.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of the stock in a transaction on Sunday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total transaction of $163,610.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 13,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,877,504.39. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other CME Group news, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total transaction of $163,610.46. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 13,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,877,504.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.59, for a total transaction of $1,629,381.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 55,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,932,706.13. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About CME Group

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.