Kingdom Financial Group LLC. Buys Shares of 3,348 CME Group Inc. $CME

Kingdom Financial Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 3,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $914,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. West Family Investments Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 3,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $827,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 64.9% during the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 11,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,147,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its position in shares of CME Group by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atlatl Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Atlatl Advisers LLC now owns 2,126 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $574,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 3,291 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.37, for a total value of $1,097,120.67. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 7,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,397,597.04. This represents a 31.39% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 48,244 shares of company stock worth $14,598,037. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CME shares. Weiss Ratings raised CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn dropped their target price on CME Group from $340.00 to $316.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $275.00 to $267.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial increased their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.29.

CME Group Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $289.29 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $257.17 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $104.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68, a PEG ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.23. The business has a fifty day moving average of $296.62 and a 200-day moving average of $289.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company 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. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.26 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

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.