Madison Asset Management LLC Increases Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Madison Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 36.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 105,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 28,393 shares during the period. Madison Asset Management LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $28,471,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of CME. Center for Financial Planning Inc. lifted its holdings in CME Group by 16.4% during the third quarter. Center for Financial Planning Inc. now owns 2,251 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $608,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its holdings in CME Group by 35.5% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 2,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 602 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 23.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,321 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA boosted its holdings in CME Group by 1,146.7% in the 3rd quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA now owns 1,147 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 1,055 shares during the period. Finally, Midwest Trust Co boosted its stake in CME Group by 3.6% during the third quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 3,726 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,007,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CME shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on CME Group from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $310.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $297.59.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $306.76 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $278.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $273.40. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $239.70 and a 52 week high of $309.35. The company has a market capitalization of $110.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.27.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $0.02. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 251 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were bought at an average price of $278.37 per share, with a total value of $69,870.87. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 258,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,017,102.70. This represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total value of $6,738,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,804 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,737,468.20. This trade represents a 27.53% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

More CME Group News

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large institutional buy — Intermede Investment Partners disclosed a new ~$77.8M position in CME on its 13F, signaling fresh institutional demand that could support shares. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion — CME announced it will launch financially settled Single Stock Futures covering 50+ large U.S. names (Alphabet, Meta, NVIDIA, Tesla, etc.), a new product that can attract volume and fees if approved. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Distribution / flow win — FlexTrade integrated CME’s FX Spot+ and EBS Market offerings into its FlexFX platform, expanding distribution of CME liquidity pools and potentially boosting FX-related revenue. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed short-interest readings — recent filings show short interest rose to ~5.21M shares (?1.4% of shares, ~2.8 days to cover) as of Jan 30, but another report contains conflicting/zero values, making the net short-pressure unclear. (Internal short-interest notices)
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares (~$224k) earlier this month; this is one of several recent insider sales and can be perceived as a weak signal by some investors. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst resistance — Goldman Sachs reiterated a sell rating (raising target slightly to $266), which may cap upside for investors relying on sell-side guidance. Read More.

CME Group Company Profile

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.