Egerton Capital UK LLP Trims Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Egerton Capital UK LLP decreased its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,179,792 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,996 shares during the quarter. CME Group makes up about 3.5% of Egerton Capital UK LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Egerton Capital UK LLP’s holdings in CME Group were worth $322,178,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 345.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 237,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,965,000 after acquiring an additional 184,459 shares during the last quarter. Dover Advisors LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 95.5% during the third quarter. Dover Advisors LLC now owns 5,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,512,000 after acquiring an additional 2,734 shares during the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 32.5% during the third quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 50,977 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,773,000 after acquiring an additional 12,503 shares during the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in CME Group during the fourth quarter worth $2,122,000. Finally, Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ increased its stake in CME Group by 1.6% during the third quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ now owns 114,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,913,000 after acquiring an additional 1,777 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen cut CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 26th. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on CME Group from $313.00 to $329.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $305.29.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $257.40 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $93.27 billion, a PE ratio of 21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $288.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $288.67. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $244.56 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.CME Group’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.80 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.37%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 3,291 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.37, for a total value of $1,097,120.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 7,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,397,597.04. This trade represents a 31.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were 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 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 44,044 shares of company stock worth $13,297,507. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.