Ceera Investments LLC Has $707,000 Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Ceera Investments LLC decreased its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 84.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,394 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,793 shares during the quarter. Ceera Investments LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $707,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,802,366,000 after purchasing an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,408,747,000 after purchasing an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,344,776,000 after buying an additional 134,242 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its holdings in CME Group by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,179,858,000 after buying an additional 222,890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.12.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $245.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $218.31 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $258.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $282.12. The company has a market capitalization of $88.80 billion, a PE ratio of 20.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.25.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.80 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.21 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

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.