Capital International Investors Sells 353,574 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Capital International Investors reduced its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,110,257 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 353,574 shares during the quarter. Capital International Investors owned about 1.14% of CME Group worth $1,110,723,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,307,074 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,539,618,000 after acquiring an additional 130,698 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,571,447,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in CME Group by 2.0% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted 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 purchasing an additional 238,522 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $319.09 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $248.53 and a 52 week high of $329.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $115.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.59, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $292.99 and its 200 day moving average is $278.00.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 62.45% and a return on equity of 14.65%. CME Group’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.80%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total transaction of $1,300,530.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $224,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on CME. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $302.71.

CME Group Company 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.