Peterson Wealth Services Buys 983 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Peterson Wealth Services boosted its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) by 11.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,670 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 983 shares during the quarter. Peterson Wealth Services' holdings in CME Group were worth $2,565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 122.2% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 100 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 129 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 612.5% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 114 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CME. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $283.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $261.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Derek Sammann sold 4,650 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.61, for a total transaction of $1,304,836.50. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 8,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,339,164.96. The trade was a 35.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 1,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.28, for a total value of $271,280.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $790,781.20. The trade was a 25.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 13,400 shares of company stock valued at $3,680,610. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Price Performance

CME traded down $0.36 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $274.64. The stock had a trading volume of 2,682,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,185,184. The company has a market cap of $98.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.81 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a fifty day moving average of $275.89 and a 200 day moving average of $261.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $193.25 and a 1 year high of $290.79.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.03% and a net margin of 57.71%. The business's revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 9th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. CME Group's payout ratio is presently 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.