CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Bought by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 18.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,169,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 343,498 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 0.60% of CME Group worth $503,939,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its position in CME Group by 263.7% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,461 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,363,000 after buying an additional 98,219 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,389,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,946,717,000 after acquiring an additional 104,697 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 65,382 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,184,000 after acquiring an additional 4,609 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in CME Group by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 493,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $114,616,000 after purchasing an additional 55,980 shares during the period. Finally, HighPoint Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 76,517 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,497,000 after purchasing an additional 876 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $262.54 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $236.71. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.70 and a twelve month high of $267.91. The company has a market capitalization of $94.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 51.71%.

Insider Activity

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,873 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,686,980. The trade was a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total transaction of $2,888,378.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock valued at $6,871,496. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on CME. Barclays boosted their price objective on CME Group from $257.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $235.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $241.53.

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.