Northern Trust Corp Lowers Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp has reduced its stake in CME Group Inc. by 3.4%, now holding approximately 3.8 million shares valued at over $1 billion.
• CME Group recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.25 per share, translating to an annualized dividend of $5.00 and a yield of 1.8%.
• The company reported a 10.4% increase in revenue year-over-year, achieving earnings of $2.96 per share, exceeding analyst expectations.

Northern Trust Corp lessened its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) by 3.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,810,517 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 132,937 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned 1.06% of CME Group worth $1,010,892,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CME. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in CME Group in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 122.2% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 100 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 612.5% in the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 114 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new position in CME Group in the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in CME Group in the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on CME. Piper Sandler upped their price target on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Barclays set a $298.00 price target on CME Group and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered CME Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Sunday, July 13th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on CME Group from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $261.93.

CME Group Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of CME Group stock traded down $3.80 on Friday, hitting $269.52. 1,591,589 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,923,555. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $206.44 and a one year high of $290.79. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $275.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $268.31. The company has a market capitalization of $97.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.95 and a beta of 0.44.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%.The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.56 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 will be paid on Thursday, September 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.40%.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director Charles P. Carey sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.35, for a total value of $132,675.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,300,215. This represents a 9.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 256 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $270.53 per share, for a total transaction of $69,255.68. Following the acquisition, the director owned 258,196 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $69,849,763.88. This represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.