Natixis Has $17.57 Million Holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Natixis trimmed its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) by 31.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 75,668 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 34,671 shares during the period. Natixis' holdings in CME Group were worth $17,572,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norinchukin Bank The lifted its position in CME Group by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Norinchukin Bank The now owns 16,293 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 26.0% during the 4th quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 14,207 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,299,000 after acquiring an additional 2,928 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. now owns 24,619 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $5,717,000 after acquiring an additional 1,817 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,095,106 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $254,314,000 after acquiring an additional 29,662 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Ltd. CA increased its stake in CME Group by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA now owns 54,479 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $12,652,000 after acquiring an additional 6,953 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 21,873 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,686,980. The trade was a 31.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 3,984 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.47, for a total transaction of $997,872.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 27,046 shares in the company, valued at $6,774,211.62. The trade was a 12.84 % 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 ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America boosted their price target on CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and set a $269.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $248.93.

CME Group Trading Up 0.7 %

CME stock traded up $1.79 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $263.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,632,132 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,157,714. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $190.70 and a 52 week high of $273.42. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $258.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $241.21. The stock has a market cap of $94.87 billion, a PE ratio of 27.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 57.52% and a return on equity of 13.62%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. 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 payout ratio is presently 51.71%.

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.