AIA Group Ltd Sells 7,838 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

AIA Group Ltd reduced its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 24.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,838 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in CME Group were worth $6,557,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in CME Group in the second quarter worth about $1,571,447,000. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,006,932,000. Strive Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $636,487,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in CME Group by 107.2% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,502,752 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $406,029,000 after acquiring an additional 777,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP purchased a new position in CME Group in the second quarter worth $164,648,000. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank raised CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on CME Group from $266.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday. TD Cowen upped their target price on CME Group from $305.00 to $328.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $304.06.

CME Group Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of CME stock opened at $308.90 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $298.30 and a 200 day moving average of $279.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $111.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.24. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $248.53 and a twelve month high of $329.16.

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.59%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $224,400.00. Following the sale, the director owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $809,700. This trade represents a 21.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 251 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $278.37 per share, with a total value of $69,870.87. Following the transaction, the director owned 258,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,017,102.70. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 5,248 shares of company stock valued at $1,616,700. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About CME Group

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.