Militia Capital Management LLC Acquires New Stake in CME Group Inc. $CME

Militia Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 8,660 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,558,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 64.9% during the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $267.79 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $250.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $281.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market cap of $96.29 billion, a PE ratio of 22.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.96 EPS. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays reduced their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $291.81.

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.