Baird Financial Group Inc. Has $31.79 Million Stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 136,909 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 4,399 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in CME Group were worth $31,794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Bayesian Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $418,000. Bearing Point Capital LLC bought a new stake in CME Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $7,969,000. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its holdings in CME Group by 78.6% during the fourth quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 616 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 73.5% in the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,217 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,223,000 after purchasing an additional 2,210 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered shares of CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on CME Group from $275.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $269.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on 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, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on CME Group from $269.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $256.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 1,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 25.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total transaction of $385,245.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 30,076 shares of company stock valued at $7,670,976. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ CME opened at $282.56 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $190.70 and a 1-year high of $284.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock's 50 day moving average is $262.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $244.22. The company has a market capitalization of $101.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.19. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from CME Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. CME Group's payout ratio is 50.30%.

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.

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