Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Takes Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA bought a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 60,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $16,271,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in CME Group by 0.7% during the third quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 67,621 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,270,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Financial Life Planners purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $38,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,381,133 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $913,548,000 after purchasing an additional 20,213 shares in the last quarter. Brentview Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Brentview Investment Management LLC now owns 41,980 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,343,000 after purchasing an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 7,618 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,058,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CME. Weiss Ratings upgraded CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $312.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $310.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $302.71.

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 at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $224,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.90, for a total value of $91,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 24,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,647,194.10. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450 over the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Trading Down 4.0%

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

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. 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. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.80%.

About CME Group

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.