Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 9,840 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Victory Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 242,158 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,840 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $65,429,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Caldwell Trust Co increased its stake in CME Group by 116.3% in the 3rd quarter. Caldwell Trust Co now owns 93 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Financial Consulate Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. bought a new stake in CME Group during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Corundum Trust Company INC bought a new stake in CME Group during the third quarter worth about $30,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CME. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $312.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James Financial reduced their price target on CME Group from $311.00 to $310.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $302.71.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME opened at $316.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $114.24 billion, a PE ratio of 28.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $291.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $277.29. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $248.53 and a 1 year high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.52 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total transaction of $6,738,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,737,468.20. This trade represents a 27.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total value of $1,300,530.00. Following the sale, the director owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,317,117.55. This trade represents a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 30,248 shares of company stock valued at $8,355,450. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.