CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Sold by Prosperity Consulting Group LLC

Prosperity Consulting Group LLC lowered its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 6.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 287 shares during the quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $930,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in CME Group by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 537 shares in the last quarter. Topsail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $252,000. Van Den Berg Management I Inc. grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Van Den Berg Management I Inc. now owns 21,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,920,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $564,000 after buying an additional 566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burling Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at $5,833,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CME. Bank of America upped their price objective on CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Citigroup lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $256.80.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total transaction of $2,888,378.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $266.30 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $258.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $241.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.96 billion, a PE ratio of 27.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $190.70 and a 52-week high of $273.42.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.71%.

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.