OP Asset Management Ltd Invests $10.83 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

OP Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 36,654 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,826,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in CME Group by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,802,366,000 after buying an additional 588,509 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after acquiring an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,344,776,000 after buying an additional 134,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in CME Group by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,812,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,300,450,000 after purchasing an additional 130,848 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on CME. Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $267.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler set a $320.00 price target on CME Group in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.24.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. This represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Down 2.9%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $225.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a market capitalization of $81.53 billion, a PE ratio of 19.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.21. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $274.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $286.20. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $224.40 and a 52-week high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. CME Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.80 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

CME Group Profile

CME Group Inc is a global markets company that operates some of the world’s largest and most liquid derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. The firm offers futures and options contracts across a broad range of asset classes — including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities and metals — and serves a diverse client base of institutional investors, commercial hedgers, brokers and retail participants.

The company’s core services include electronic trading on the CME Globex platform, central clearing through CME Clearing, and distribution of market data, indexes and analytics.