Prospera Private Wealth LLC Buys New Shares in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 16,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,618,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. West Family Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $435,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 17.3% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 152,789 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,713,000 after purchasing an additional 22,570 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in CME Group in the third quarter worth $5,569,000. Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in CME Group by 10.1% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 6,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,342,000 after buying an additional 559 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviso Wealth Management increased its holdings in CME Group by 42.7% in the 3rd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 10,661 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,352,000 after buying an additional 3,191 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.59, for a total value of $1,629,381.87. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 55,607 shares in the company, valued at $11,932,706.13. This trade represents a 12.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total value of $163,610.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 13,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,877,504.39. This represents a 5.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 15,621 shares of company stock valued at $3,441,063. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on CME. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on CME Group from $187.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $195.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $224.47.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME stock opened at $229.66 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $223.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.69. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $190.70 and a fifty-two week high of $230.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.76 billion, a PE ratio of 24.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 0.55.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 57.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.25 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.22 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.00%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 48.37%.

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.