Grove Bank & Trust Purchases 127 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Grove Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 2.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the quarter. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,264,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC increased its position in CME Group by 3.0% during the first quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,379 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $366,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its position in CME Group by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 437 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.6% in the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 1,342 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $356,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC now owns 1,906 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.28, for a total value of $271,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $790,781.20. This trade represents a 25.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Larry G. Gerdes sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.10, for a total transaction of $528,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 38,651 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,207,729.10. This trade represents a 4.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,400 shares of company stock valued at $3,680,610 in the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME stock opened at $267.51 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $96.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.66, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $272.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $254.72. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $290.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.01.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. CME Group’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 50.30%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $282.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $258.20.

About CME Group

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.