Flputnam Investment Management Co. Sells 1,987 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Flputnam Investment Management Co. lowered its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 12.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,686 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,987 shares during the period. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $3,698,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Webster Bank N. A. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 206.9% in the 2nd quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 89 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 84.3% during the second quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. purchased a new position in CME Group in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Ransom Advisory Ltd purchased a new position in CME Group in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in CME Group by 59.2% in the second quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 113 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CME. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $288.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on CME Group from $252.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial dropped their target price on CME Group from $309.00 to $307.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $290.47.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $269.09 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $97.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $272.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $271.73. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $224.62 and a 1 year high of $290.79.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 258,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,540,742.21. The trade was a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total transaction of $6,738,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,737,468.20. This trade represents a 27.53% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.