Apollon Wealth Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 7.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 949 shares during the quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $3,664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Natural Investments LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 29.8% during the second quarter. Natural Investments LLC now owns 1,315 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $362,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Louisbourg Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $141,000. Applied Capital LLC FL increased its position in shares of CME Group by 0.8% during the second quarter. Applied Capital LLC FL now owns 5,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,652,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $604,000. Finally, Aberdeen Group plc increased its position in CME Group by 1.6% in the second quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 620,828 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $169,542,000 after buying an additional 9,594 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on CME. Wall Street Zen downgraded CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, July 13th. 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. 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. Piper Sandler raised their target price on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research report on Wednesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $281.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 258,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,540,742.21. This represents a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total value of $3,229,407.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,734,436.80. This represents a 40.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,043 shares of company stock valued at $3,527,956 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $271.45 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $213.94 and a one year high of $290.79. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $268.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $271.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a PEG ratio of 5.72 and a beta of 0.41.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%.The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were issued a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.40%.

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.