Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Buys 359 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 67,254 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $14,164,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in CME Group by 31.5% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,858,967 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $972,863,000 after buying an additional 1,163,103 shares during the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $113,772,000. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the third quarter worth about $86,424,000. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 31.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,605,211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $321,395,000 after purchasing an additional 386,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 6.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,465,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $693,847,000 after purchasing an additional 217,101 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $195.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on CME Group from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Argus raised their price objective on CME Group from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on CME Group from $198.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CME Group from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $217.80.

CME Group Price Performance

CME traded down $1.62 during trading on Friday, hitting $210.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 621,319 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,779,413. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $175.73 and a twelve month high of $223.80. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $214.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $211.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.18, a P/E/G ratio of 5.97 and a beta of 0.49.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.45% and a net margin of 56.84%. The business’s revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 9.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.18%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 52.33%.

CME Group 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.