Waldron Private Wealth LLC Sells 70 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Waldron Private Wealth LLC reduced its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,614 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 70 shares during the quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $564,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in CME Group by 5.0% during the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,503 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $278,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $605,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $280,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 15,841 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,243,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CME. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, January 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $195.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $229.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of CME Group from $225.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Argus boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $215.70.

CME Group Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $206.23 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $214.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $211.60. The company has a market cap of $74.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 5.95 and a beta of 0.49. 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 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, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 57.83% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The company’s revenue was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.92 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 9.56 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.86%.

CME Group Company 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.