Prosperity Consulting Group LLC Boosts Stake in CME Group Inc. $CME

Prosperity Consulting Group LLC increased its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 918.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,035 shares during the quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $2,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after purchasing an additional 588,509 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in CME Group by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,408,747,000 after acquiring an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in CME Group by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after buying an additional 134,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,179,858,000 after buying an additional 222,890 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $292.12.

CME Group Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of CME stock opened at $245.05 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $258.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $282.12. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.80 billion, a PE ratio of 20.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.80 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 44.37%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.