CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Has $394.88 Million Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC decreased its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,722,095 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 62,699 shares during the quarter. CME Group makes up about 0.7% of CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $394,876,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. IPG Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,530,000. RWA Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in CME Group by 106.9% during the fourth quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $708,000 after acquiring an additional 1,576 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in CME Group by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 43,941 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,174,000 after purchasing an additional 2,426 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in CME Group by 31.5% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,416,361 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $793,382,000 after purchasing an additional 819,158 shares during the period. Finally, L & S Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth $3,067,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CME. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on CME Group from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $238.93.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $262.22 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $190.70 and a 1-year high of $267.91. The company has a 50 day moving average of $249.65 and a 200-day moving average of $235.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market cap of $94.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.12, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. On average, equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 51.71%.

CME Group declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,873 shares in the company, valued at $5,686,980. The trade was a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares in the company, valued at $2,063,885.88. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 27,076 shares of company stock valued at $6,871,496 in the last 90 days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Profile

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.