Keel Point LLC Has $323,000 Holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Keel Point LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 12.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Keel Point LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $323,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its stake in CME Group by 52.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in CME Group by 70.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,427,107 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $544,157,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003,119 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of CME Group by 4.4% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 419,532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $92,570,000 after purchasing an additional 17,508 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,626 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,495 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 30,170 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,557 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America lifted their price target on CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $269.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Citigroup lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $256.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,076 shares of company stock worth $7,670,976. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $280.45 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $190.70 and a 52-week high of $282.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.01. The business has a fifty day moving average of $261.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $243.61. The stock has a market cap of $101.06 billion, a PE ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.30%.

About CME Group

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.