IHT Wealth Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

IHT Wealth Management LLC lowered its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) by 19.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,957 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 1,462 shares during the period. IHT Wealth Management LLC's holdings in CME Group were worth $1,383,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 108.7% in the fourth quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 12,390 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,949,000 after purchasing an additional 6,453 shares in the last quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,144,000. Unified Investment Management bought a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $503,000. Spire Wealth Management raised its position in CME Group by 37.4% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 1,320 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 19.3% in the 4th quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 326,098 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $75,730,000 after purchasing an additional 52,862 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 21,873 shares in the company, valued at $5,686,980. The trade was a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of CME Group 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on CME shares. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on CME Group from $275.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays raised their target price on CME Group from $279.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $269.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $256.80.

CME Group Stock Up 0.3 %

CME Group stock traded up $0.81 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $267.11. The stock had a trading volume of 511,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,151,309. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $96.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.60, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $273.42. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $258.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $242.09.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. On average, analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. This is a boost from CME Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. CME Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.30%.

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.