Rockland Trust Co. Buys New Stake in CME Group Inc. $CME

Rockland Trust Co. bought 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 SEC. The fund bought 1,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $482,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Amundi raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 24.0% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,987,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $548,150,000 after purchasing an additional 385,225 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in CME Group by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 70,712 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,106,000 after buying an additional 5,773 shares in the last quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 86.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 29,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,896,000 after buying an additional 13,512 shares during the period. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 85.2% during the 3rd quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,519 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after buying an additional 3,919 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 310.2% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Financial Group LLC now owns 3,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $839,000 after buying an additional 2,302 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $296.94 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $303.79 and a 200-day moving average of $282.46. The firm has a market cap of $106.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $248.53 and a twelve month high of $329.16.

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were issued a $1.30 dividend. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $333.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Two 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 3,291 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.37, for a total value of $1,097,120.67. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 7,192 shares in the company, valued at $2,397,597.04. The trade was a 31.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $224,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 8,539 shares of company stock worth $2,713,821 over the last quarter. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.