Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Has $234,000 Stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,112 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of CME Group by 31.5% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,858,967 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $972,863,000 after acquiring an additional 1,163,103 shares during the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $113,772,000. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $86,424,000. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,605,211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $321,395,000 after purchasing an additional 386,730 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,465,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $693,847,000 after purchasing an additional 217,101 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Argus increased their price target on CME Group from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $195.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on CME Group from $222.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CME Group from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $187.00 price objective (up previously from $185.00) on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $216.10.

CME Group Stock Up 0.7 %

CME stock traded up $1.45 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $214.04. 749,495 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,776,804. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $214.73 and its 200-day moving average is $211.93. The company has a market cap of $77.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.03, a PEG ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $175.73 and a 12 month high of $223.80.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 57.83%. The company’s revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.42 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 9.58 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 51.86%.

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.