Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC Sells 998 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC reduced its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 38,726 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 998 shares during the quarter. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $8,993,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FIL Ltd boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,081,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $947,821,000 after purchasing an additional 61,908 shares in the last quarter. Canopy Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $202,000. Twin Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,634 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,166,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 83,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,929,000 after acquiring an additional 10,097 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in CME Group by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,094 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $719,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on CME. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CME Group from $256.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $242.60.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $252.37 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $190.70 and a 1 year high of $273.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $252.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $237.72. The firm has a market cap of $90.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.10, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.25 dividend. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 51.71%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 21,873 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,686,980. This represents a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,063,885.88. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.