Forum Financial Management LP Sells 3,293 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Forum Financial Management LP cut its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 41.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,293 shares during the quarter. Forum Financial Management LP’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC now owns 6,157 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Intrua Financial LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 15.0% in the first quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 1,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $414,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. EWA LLC acquired a new position in CME Group in the first quarter worth about $247,000. Simmons Bank raised its position in CME Group by 0.5% in the first quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 16,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,779,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its stake in CME Group by 28.1% during the first quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 369 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Down 1.1%

NASDAQ CME opened at $218.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $79.20 billion, a PE ratio of 18.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.21. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $271.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $285.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.80 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.37%.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on CME. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $302.24.

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.