LM Advisors LLC Buys New Position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

LM Advisors LLC bought a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 3,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $822,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in CME Group by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 71,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,677,000 after buying an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.5% in the third quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 7,135 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,574,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in CME Group in the third quarter valued at $26,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in CME Group by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 30,202 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,664,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,108,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $244,560,000 after purchasing an additional 37,911 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $262.72 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $248.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $235.14. 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 $94.67 billion, a PE ratio of 27.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $190.70 and a 52-week high of $267.91.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.71%.

CME Group announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CME. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $256.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $238.93.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total transaction of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,063,885.88. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,873 shares in the company, valued at $5,686,980. This represents a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock valued at $6,871,496. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About CME Group

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.