CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Bought by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,437,071 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 124,820 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.68% of CME Group worth $658,474,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Amundi increased its stake in CME Group by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,987,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $548,150,000 after buying an additional 385,225 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 70,712 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,106,000 after buying an additional 5,773 shares in the last quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 86.0% in the 3rd quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 29,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,896,000 after acquiring an additional 13,512 shares during the period. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 85.2% in the 3rd quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,519 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 3,919 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 310.2% in the second quarter. Victory Financial Group LLC now owns 3,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $839,000 after acquiring an additional 2,302 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: CME is reporting record trading activity and demand: the energy complex set an all‑time single‑day volume record (8.3M contracts) and the firm touted record monthly futures volume, evidence of strong client flow and fee generation that supports revenues and long‑term earnings. Energy Volume Record
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion: CME launched new South Asia crude palm oil futures and already recorded initial block trades, showing uptake for new contracts and incremental revenue opportunities from expanded product suites. Palm Oil Futures Launch
• Positive Sentiment: Infrastructure partnership: Tickblaze announced integration of CME futures market data into its platform, which can broaden distribution of CME data products to prop trading shops and institutional users. This supports data‑services revenue potential. Tickblaze Partnership
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually large options activity: a huge spike in call purchases was reported (very large notional / volume vs typical), which could signal speculative bullish positioning but may also be one‑day noise; treat as mixed short‑term signal.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data in recent feeds shows zero/NaN entries and 0 days‑to‑cover — this appears to be a reporting anomaly and should not be read as a material change in short demand.
• Negative Sentiment: Ex‑dividend mechanical pressure: the board declared a large combined payout (~$7.45 per share), and the stock adjusted lower on the ex‑dividend date as expected; that mechanical drop is the main proximate cause of today’s decline. Ex‑Dividend Analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Sell pressure from sentiment and flows: recent profit‑taking after strong run, at least one analyst downgrade and large institutional moves (notably big reductions by some asset managers) and reported insider sales have likely added incremental selling pressure. Analyst / Institutional / Insider Notes

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $278.37 per share, with a total value of $69,870.87. Following the purchase, the director owned 258,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $72,017,102.70. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $224,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $306.34 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $248.53 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The business’s fifty day moving average is $293.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $278.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.24. 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 (NASDAQ:CME) last released 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 analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The company’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.52 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $1.30 dividend. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 44.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on CME Group from $302.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.