Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 41.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,962 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,785 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,070,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CME. Amundi lifted its stake in CME Group by 24.0% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,987,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $548,150,000 after purchasing an additional 385,225 shares during the last quarter. Victory Financial Group LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 310.2% during the second quarter. Victory Financial Group LLC now owns 3,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $839,000 after purchasing an additional 2,302 shares during the last quarter. Investors Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych Spolka Akcyjna acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $1,389,000. Chicago Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 583.8% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 13,327 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,601,000 after buying an additional 11,378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 64,939 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,898,000 after buying an additional 5,914 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director Harold Eugene Jr. Ford sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.53, for a total value of $263,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,091 shares in the company, valued at $287,511.23. This represents a 47.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 251 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $278.37 per share, with a total value of $69,870.87. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 258,710 shares in the company, valued at $72,017,102.70. This represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on CME. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on CME Group from $283.00 to $287.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. TD Cowen increased their price target on CME Group from $288.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on CME Group from $282.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on CME Group from $252.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.06.

CME Group Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of CME stock opened at $266.64 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $225.46 and a 1 year high of $290.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.15 billion, a PE ratio of 25.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $274.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $271.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.63 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 58.84% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The company’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.68 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th were paid a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 12th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.45%.

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.