PDS Planning Inc Buys 236 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

PDS Planning Inc lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,038 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the quarter. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in CME Group were worth $837,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,643,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,190,661,000 after buying an additional 400,737 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 9.7% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,091,401,000 after buying an additional 363,130 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 3.0% during the second quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,920,046 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $804,823,000 after buying an additional 84,005 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 29.9% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,818,590 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $747,744,000 after buying an additional 648,591 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 10.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,783,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $735,539,000 after buying an additional 260,065 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on CME Group from $276.00 to $266.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen cut CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, July 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on CME Group from $246.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $275.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $281.00.

CME Group Stock Up 1.0%

NASDAQ CME opened at $271.45 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $268.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $271.17. The company has a market capitalization of $97.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.41. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $213.94 and a 52 week high of $290.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.56 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict 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 was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total transaction of $3,229,407.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,734,436.80. This represents a 40.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Timothy Francis Mccourt sold 379 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.83, for a total value of $98,475.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 9,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,470,463.64. This trade represents a 3.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,043 shares of company stock worth $3,527,956 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group 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.