Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Has $6.48 Million Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 0.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 24,418 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $6,478,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CME. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 2,861 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $664,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in CME Group by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 86,941 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,190,000 after buying an additional 19,533 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. lifted its position in CME Group by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 71,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,665,000 after buying an additional 7,444 shares in the last quarter. TigerOak Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $2,309,000. Finally, Everhart Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $469,000 after buying an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CME. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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. Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut CME Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $258.20.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $269.50 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market cap of $97.12 billion, a PE ratio of 27.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $272.73 and a 200-day moving average of $254.51. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $290.79.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced 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 company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. CME Group’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. CME Group’s payout ratio is 50.30%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.50, for a total transaction of $108,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 6,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,861,470. This represents a 5.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Charles P. Carey sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.35, for a total value of $132,675.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,300,215. This trade represents a 9.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 13,400 shares of company stock valued at $3,680,610. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Company 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.