GDS Wealth Management Sells 122 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

GDS Wealth Management reduced its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,320 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 122 shares during the period. GDS Wealth Management’s holdings in CME Group were worth $653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 24.1% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,809,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,403,557,000 after buying an additional 3,069,806 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in CME Group by 137.6% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,260,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $444,443,000 after acquiring an additional 1,309,097 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,589,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,072,654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,172,575 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $156,631,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 577.9% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 645,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $126,872,000 after purchasing an additional 550,133 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 7,593 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.59, for a total value of $1,629,381.87. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 55,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,932,706.13. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CME shares. Bank of America downgraded shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $212.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $212.00 to $213.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on CME Group from $187.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on CME Group from $193.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $209.73.

CME Group Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $218.53 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $223.80. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $206.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $207.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market cap of $78.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.85 and a beta of 0.55.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.03. CME Group had a net margin of 56.98% and a return on equity of 12.82%. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.33%.

About CME Group

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.