Wedbush Securities Inc. Buys 694 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Wedbush Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 11.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,961 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 694 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 552,108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $128,216,000 after acquiring an additional 7,525 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth about $26,758,000. Prudential PLC raised its position in CME Group by 55.1% in the 4th quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 18,941 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,399,000 after purchasing an additional 6,727 shares during the period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. lifted its stake in CME Group by 59.3% in the fourth quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 2,061 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $479,000 after purchasing an additional 767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ExodusPoint Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 75.8% during the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 57,432 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,337,000 after buying an additional 24,767 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 3,984 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.47, for a total transaction of $997,872.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,046 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,774,211.62. This trade represents a 12.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total value of $2,888,378.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at $5,453,085.45. This represents a 34.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,076 shares of company stock valued at $6,871,496 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CME. Oppenheimer raised their price target on CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on CME Group from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $269.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $241.53.

CME Group Trading Down 5.2 %

NASDAQ CME opened at $254.46 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $91.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.31, a P/E/G ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $273.42. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $252.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $237.31.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. On average, analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 51.71%.

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.