U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 901 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 54.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,552 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 901 shares during the quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 84,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,863,000 after purchasing an additional 850 shares during the period. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $663,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 179.5% in the fourth quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 1,864 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 1,197 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $226,000. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 271,661 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $57,212,000 after acquiring an additional 21,803 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CME. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $210.00 target price (down previously from $235.00) on shares of CME Group in a report on Friday, April 5th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $222.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on CME Group from $198.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Argus upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $217.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.91, for a total transaction of $8,436,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 67,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,226,934.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of CME opened at $208.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $74.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.66, a P/E/G ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $213.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $211.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $175.73 and a 1 year high of $223.80.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.49 billion during 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%. CME Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 9.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.21%. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.33%.

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.