Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Purchases Shares of 2,291 CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 97,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $22,729,000 after buying an additional 16,264 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in shares of CME Group by 29.8% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 279,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $64,807,000 after buying an additional 64,045 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments Management Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,134,000. Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its position in shares of CME Group by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,725 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,104,000 after buying an additional 1,199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 52,605 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,216,000 after buying an additional 1,458 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $235.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $238.93.

CME Group Trading Down 1.2 %

CME stock opened at $263.35 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.70 and a twelve month high of $267.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $94.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $234.07.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. As a group, analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 51.71%.

CME Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were 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 directly owns 21,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,453,085.45. This represents a 34.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total transaction of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock valued at $6,871,496. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.