R Squared Ltd Sells 4,363 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

R Squared Ltd lessened its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 73.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,541 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,363 shares during the quarter. R Squared Ltd’s holdings in CME Group were worth $455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CME. Asset Dedication LLC boosted its stake in CME Group by 64.9% in the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 11,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,147,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. 1248 Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter. 1248 Management LLC now owns 180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sovran Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 1,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.00.

CME Group Trading Up 3.3%

NASDAQ CME traded up $7.64 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $242.40. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 775,687 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,745,922. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $267.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $284.36. The stock has a market cap of $87.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.25. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $218.31 and a 52 week high of $329.16. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.80 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

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.