Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 66 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,564 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 66 shares during the quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CME. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in CME Group by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 11.8% in the third quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 436 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.7% in the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,530 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $338,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 10.2% during the third quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $131,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust grew its holdings in CME Group by 1.3% during the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 4,276 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $943,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on CME Group from $260.00 to $256.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $177.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $210.00 to $233.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $229.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.92, for a total transaction of $89,168.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,067 shares in the company, valued at $5,587,935.64. The trade was a 1.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 4,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.64, for a total value of $1,019,880.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 27,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,131,291.92. This trade represents a 14.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,274 shares of company stock worth $1,648,071 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Up 0.2 %

CME stock opened at $232.71 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $233.29 and a 200-day moving average of $220.09. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $190.70 and a fifty-two week high of $249.02. The company has a market capitalization of $83.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.47, a PEG ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. CME Group had a net margin of 57.34% and a return on equity of 13.39%. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.25 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.2 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a dividend of $5.80 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous dividend of $2.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 48.37%.

CME Group declared that its board has approved a stock buyback 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 reacquire up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.