Ceera Investments LLC Sells 12,793 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Ceera Investments LLC trimmed its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 84.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,394 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,793 shares during the period. Ceera Investments LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $707,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in CME Group by 746.4% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,720,000 after buying an additional 1,807,491 shares in the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd acquired a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $217,656,000. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CME Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after acquiring an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CME. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on CME Group from $353.00 to $324.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. TD Cowen cut their target price on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.12.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $245.05 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $258.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $282.12. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $218.31 and a 52 week high of $329.16. The company has a market cap of $88.80 billion, a PE ratio of 20.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The business had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.80 EPS. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group 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.