Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Has $7.45 Million Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 8.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 27,558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,143 shares during the quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $7,446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in CME Group by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,695,313,000 after acquiring an additional 532,549 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,524,271,000 after purchasing an additional 319,899 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth approximately $1,571,447,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in CME Group by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,682,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,289,910,000 after purchasing an additional 92,925 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in CME Group by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,833,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,056,476,000 after buying an additional 238,522 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, Director Harold Eugene Jr. Ford sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.53, for a total value of $263,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $287,511.23. The trade was a 47.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total transaction of $6,738,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares in the company, valued at $17,737,468.20. The trade was a 27.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CME. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on CME Group from $283.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on CME Group from $310.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Argus lowered their price target on CME Group from $308.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $292.18.

CME Group Trading Up 0.5%

CME Group stock opened at $282.73 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $232.32 and a one year high of $290.79. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $274.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $101.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.27.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 58.84%.The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th were given a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 12th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.45%.

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.