CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Sold by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd reduced its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 37.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,135 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,534 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in CME Group were worth $3,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,243,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,952,273,000 after buying an additional 326,623 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in CME Group by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,284,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,823,964,000 after acquiring an additional 142,692 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,107,389,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $871,063,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in CME Group by 31.5% in the fourth 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 last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CME shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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 shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $257.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $238.93.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $265.29 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $190.70 and a 1-year high of $267.91. The company has a market cap of $95.60 billion, a PE ratio of 27.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $250.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $236.21.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.71%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In related news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,873 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,686,980. This represents a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated 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 $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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Company 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.