Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. Sells 3,180 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. lowered its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 50,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,180 shares during the quarter. CME Group makes up about 4.6% of Cooper Investors PTY Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Cooper Investors PTY Ltd.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $13,860,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lantz Financial LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 22.7% in the 4th quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 4,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,306,000 after purchasing an additional 884 shares during the last quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC now owns 31,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,226 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 27,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,571,000 after purchasing an additional 1,449 shares in the last quarter. Fairvoy Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Fairvoy Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,443 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $940,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 32,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,846,000 after buying an additional 2,105 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total value of $1,300,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.90, for a total value of $91,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 24,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,647,194.10. The trade was a 1.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 8,539 shares of company stock valued at $2,713,821 over the last 90 days. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME opened at $293.78 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $248.53 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $105.36 billion, a PE ratio of 26.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.24. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $302.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $281.88.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.52 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on CME Group from $311.00 to $310.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings raised CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on CME Group from $333.00 to $347.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $304.06.

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.