Westpac Banking Corp Raises Stock Position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Westpac Banking Corp grew its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 255.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 34,255 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,626 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in CME Group were worth $7,955,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of CME Group by 23.9% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 12,276 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,709,000 after acquiring an additional 2,370 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in CME Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $335,000. Investment Management Corp of Ontario raised its position in CME Group by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 11,924 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,631,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares in the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,419 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,645,000 after buying an additional 1,855 shares during the period. Finally, Motley Fool Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 14,494 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,265,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CME. Raymond James raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on CME Group from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $241.53.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,453,085.45. The trade was a 34.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496 over the last 90 days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Stock Up 0.1 %

CME stock opened at $262.54 on Thursday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $190.70 and a 12 month high of $267.91. 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 cap 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 fifty day moving average price of $251.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.71.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. Sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 51.71%.

CME Group announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.