Zuckerman Investment Group LLC Decreases Stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Zuckerman Investment Group LLC decreased its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 52.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 980 shares during the quarter. Zuckerman Investment Group LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $210,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 287.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 186,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,175,000 after purchasing an additional 138,412 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in CME Group by 9.7% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $271,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in CME Group by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 96,069 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,198,000 after buying an additional 8,968 shares during the last quarter. Vestcor Inc grew its holdings in CME Group by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 14,478 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,195,000 after buying an additional 399 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,284,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,823,964,000 after acquiring an additional 142,692 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,873 shares in the company, valued at $5,686,980. This represents a 31.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders have sold a total of 27,076 shares of company stock valued at $6,871,496 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $254.13 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $254.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $238.51. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $190.70 and a 1-year high of $273.42. The stock has a market cap of $91.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. On average, research analysts expect 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 was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.71%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on CME. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays boosted their price target on CME Group from $263.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded CME Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $301.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $246.80.

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.