Skylands Capital LLC Sells 500 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Skylands Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,250 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Skylands Capital LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,948,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in CME. AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 25.5% in the third quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,543 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $509,000 after purchasing an additional 516 shares in the last quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 12.3% in the third quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $331,000 after buying an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 25,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,526,000 after acquiring an additional 3,474 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc lifted its position in CME Group by 3.9% during the third quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $424,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 68,234 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,662,000 after acquiring an additional 1,476 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective (down from $235.00) on shares of CME Group in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $222.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $209.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on CME Group from $198.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $195.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $217.80.

CME Group Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:CME traded down $0.67 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $210.27. 564,186 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,772,950. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 0.49. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $175.73 and a one year high of $223.80. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $214.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $211.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.45% and a net margin of 56.84%. The company had revenue of $1.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 9.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $1.15 dividend. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.33%.

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.