Advisors Preferred LLC Makes New Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Advisors Preferred LLC opened a new position of 15,497 CME shares in Q4 (about $4.18M); institutional investors now own roughly 87.75% of the company, with Vanguard holding ~35.9M shares (~$9.8B).
• CME beat quarterly estimates, reporting $3.36 EPS vs $3.11 expected and $1.88B revenue (up 14.5% YoY), and raised its quarterly dividend to $1.30 (annualized $5.20, ~1.8% yield).
• Analysts give CME a consensus "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $305.29, while insiders have sold 8,539 shares (~$2.71M) in the past three months (insider ownership 0.30%).

Advisors Preferred LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 15,497 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,179,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Sanders Capital LLC bought a new stake in CME Group during the third quarter worth approximately $1,006,932,000. Strive Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the third quarter worth $636,487,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 107.2% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,502,752 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $406,029,000 after acquiring an additional 777,571 shares during the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $9,802,366,000 after acquiring an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.90, for a total value of $91,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 24,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,647,194.10. This trade represents a 1.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 3,291 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.37, for a total value of $1,097,120.67. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 7,192 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,397,597.04. This trade represents a 31.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,539 shares of company stock valued at $2,713,821. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Raymond James Financial raised their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on CME Group from $313.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $305.29.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME Group stock opened at $289.54 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $303.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $286.82. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $257.17 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is an increase from CME Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group's dividend payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

CME Group Profile

CME Group Inc is a global markets company that operates some of the world's largest and most liquid derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. The firm offers futures and options contracts across a broad range of asset classes — including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals — and serves a diverse client base of institutional investors, commercial hedgers, brokers and retail participants.

The company's core services include electronic trading on the CME Globex platform, central clearing through CME Clearing, and distribution of market data, indexes and analytics.

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