Vinva Investment Management Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Vinva Investment Management Ltd lowered its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 33.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,050 shares during the quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,631,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,307,074 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,539,618,000 after acquiring an additional 130,698 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,524,271,000 after purchasing an additional 319,899 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,571,447,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in CME Group by 2.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,682,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,289,910,000 after purchasing an additional 92,925 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in CME Group by 6.6% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,833,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,056,476,000 after purchasing an additional 238,522 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CME. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Erste Group Bank upgraded CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $224,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $809,700. The trade was a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 251 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $278.37 per share, for a total transaction of $69,870.87. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 258,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $72,017,102.70. This represents a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450 over the last 90 days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $319.09 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $248.53 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The company has a market capitalization of $115.06 billion, a PE ratio of 28.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The business has a 50-day moving average of $292.99 and a 200-day moving average of $278.00.

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.80%.

CME Group 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.