United Community Bank Purchases Shares of 160 CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

United Community Bank purchased a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 160 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $37,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Summit Global Investments lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 2,057 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 787 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 24,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,323,000 after purchasing an additional 1,249 shares during the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 500.0% during the 3rd quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $132,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 5,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,212,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, YCG LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. YCG LLC now owns 128,552 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,365,000 after purchasing an additional 7,209 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ CME opened at $254.57 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $91.74 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a P/E/G ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $258.78. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $240.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $230.85.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. Analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.25 dividend. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 51.71%.

CME Group declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $257.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $235.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,063,885.88. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total transaction of $2,888,378.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,076 shares of company stock valued at $4,271,496. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.