CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Sold by Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC

Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 9.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,210 shares during the period. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $4,853,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CME. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in CME Group by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,243,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,952,273,000 after acquiring an additional 326,623 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,284,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,823,964,000 after purchasing an additional 142,692 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $871,063,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in CME Group by 17.8% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,514,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $554,707,000 after buying an additional 380,071 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 69.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 2,435,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $565,671,000 after buying an additional 996,498 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $257.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on CME Group from $235.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $238.93.

CME Group Stock Down 0.3 %

CME stock opened at $262.06 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.10, a P/E/G ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $190.70 and a 52-week high of $267.91. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $247.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $234.95.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released 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 return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. 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 yield of 1.91%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.71%.

CME Group announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,873 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,686,980. This represents a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496. 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.