SageView Advisory Group LLC Purchases 6,866 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 165.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,866 shares during the quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $2,977,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CME. Amundi grew its position in shares of CME Group by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,987,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $548,150,000 after purchasing an additional 385,225 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 8.9% in the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 70,712 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,106,000 after buying an additional 5,773 shares in the last quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 86.0% in the third quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 29,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,896,000 after buying an additional 13,512 shares in the last quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 85.2% in the third quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,519 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after buying an additional 3,919 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 310.2% in the second quarter. Victory Financial Group LLC now owns 3,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $839,000 after buying an additional 2,302 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays upped their target price on CME Group from $304.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Bank of America increased their target price on CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on CME Group from $305.00 to $328.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.71.

CME Group Stock Down 4.0%

CME stock opened at $306.34 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $248.53 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $293.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $278.26.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 62.45% and a return on equity of 14.65%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.52 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

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