Level Four Advisory Services LLC Grows Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Level Four Advisory Services LLC raised its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $3,071,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tradition Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the first quarter valued at about $260,000. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the first quarter valued at about $8,679,000. Vertex Planning Partners LLC grew its position in shares of CME Group by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC now owns 6,941 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,841,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Decatur Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the first quarter valued at about $3,256,000. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment grew its position in shares of CME Group by 5.7% in the first quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 143,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,529,000 after purchasing an additional 7,658 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $274.61 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $275.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $267.90. The company has a market capitalization of $98.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.44. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $206.44 and a 1 year high of $290.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a net margin of 58.48% and a return on equity of 14.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director Charles P. Carey sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.35, for a total transaction of $132,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,300,215. This represents a 9.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 256 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $270.53 per share, with a total value of $69,255.68. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 258,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,849,763.88. This represents a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CME. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of CME Group from $223.00 to $211.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of CME Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $305.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $261.93.

CME Group 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.