Fifth Third Bancorp Sells 2,001 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Fifth Third Bancorp reduced its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 94,912 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,001 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in CME Group were worth $25,919,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 8.9% in the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 70,712 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,106,000 after purchasing an additional 5,773 shares during the last quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 86.0% in the third quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 29,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,896,000 after purchasing an additional 13,512 shares during the last quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 85.2% in the third quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,519 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,302,000 after purchasing an additional 3,919 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 345.2% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 237,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,965,000 after purchasing an additional 184,459 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 78.8% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 13,281 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,588,000 after purchasing an additional 5,855 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME opened at $289.54 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $103.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $303.08 and a 200 day moving average of $286.58. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $257.17 and a twelve month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 44.37%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the firm’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 sale, the director owned 43,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,317,117.55. This trade represents a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 trade represents a 21.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 8,539 shares of company stock worth $2,713,821 over the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on CME. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $313.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, April 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.29.

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.