Mackenzie Financial Corp Sells 81,199 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Mackenzie Financial Corp trimmed its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,298,652 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 81,199 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in CME Group were worth $350,883,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,571,447,000. Strive Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group in the third quarter worth $636,487,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in CME Group by 107.2% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,502,752 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $406,029,000 after purchasing an additional 777,571 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 1.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,695,313,000 after purchasing an additional 532,549 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $224,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total transaction of $6,738,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,737,468.20. This represents a 27.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

More 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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $305.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $302.71.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $306.34 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $293.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $278.26. The firm has a market cap of $110.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.24. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $248.53 and a 12 month high of $329.16.

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.80%.

CME Group Company 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.