Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Decreases Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lowered its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 112,120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,268 shares during the quarter. CME Group makes up approximately 1.4% of Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $24,759,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Asset Dedication LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 64.9% during the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its position in CME Group by 2,075.0% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID grew its position in CME Group by 191.9% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $291.81.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider directly 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $263.66 on Monday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.23. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $249.24 and a 200 day moving average of $280.79.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.96 earnings per share. On average, research 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 44.11%.

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.