CME Group Inc. $CME Holdings Raised by Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH

Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH lifted its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 20.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 14,786 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,525 shares during the quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH’s holdings in CME Group were worth $4,078,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Dedication LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 64.9% during the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates raised its stake in CME Group by 1,250.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID raised its stake in CME Group by 191.9% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on CME Group from $275.00 to $267.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Erste Group Bank lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on CME Group from $340.00 to $323.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $305.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. This represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $261.60 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $244.56 and a 52 week high of $329.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market cap of $94.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $283.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $287.95.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

About CME Group

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.