Capital Research Global Investors Raises Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,054,627 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,545 shares during the quarter. Capital Research Global Investors owned 0.29% of CME Group worth $284,950,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Caldwell Trust Co lifted its position in CME Group by 116.3% during the third quarter. Caldwell Trust Co now owns 93 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Financial Consulate Inc. purchased a new position in CME Group during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Corundum Trust Company INC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Key CME Group News

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: CME is reporting record trading activity and demand: the energy complex set an all‑time single‑day volume record (8.3M contracts) and the firm touted record monthly futures volume, evidence of strong client flow and fee generation that supports revenues and long‑term earnings. Energy Volume Record
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion: CME launched new South Asia crude palm oil futures and already recorded initial block trades, showing uptake for new contracts and incremental revenue opportunities from expanded product suites. Palm Oil Futures Launch
• Positive Sentiment: Infrastructure partnership: Tickblaze announced integration of CME futures market data into its platform, which can broaden distribution of CME data products to prop trading shops and institutional users. This supports data‑services revenue potential. Tickblaze Partnership
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually large options activity: a huge spike in call purchases was reported (very large notional / volume vs typical), which could signal speculative bullish positioning but may also be one‑day noise; treat as mixed short‑term signal.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data in recent feeds shows zero/NaN entries and 0 days‑to‑cover — this appears to be a reporting anomaly and should not be read as a material change in short demand.
• Negative Sentiment: Ex‑dividend mechanical pressure: the board declared a large combined payout (~$7.45 per share), and the stock adjusted lower on the ex‑dividend date as expected; that mechanical drop is the main proximate cause of today’s decline. Ex‑Dividend Analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Sell pressure from sentiment and flows: recent profit‑taking after strong run, at least one analyst downgrade and large institutional moves (notably big reductions by some asset managers) and reported insider sales have likely added incremental selling pressure. Analyst / Institutional / Insider Notes

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total value of $6,738,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,737,468.20. This represents a 27.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total value of $1,300,530.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 43,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,317,117.55. This represents a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock valued at $8,355,450 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Down 4.0%

CME opened at $306.34 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $293.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $278.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $248.53 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.24.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The business’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.80%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CME shares. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on CME Group from $302.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on CME Group from $312.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $302.71.

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.