True North Advisors LLC Takes Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

True North Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 4,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,206,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its position in CME Group by 64.9% in the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 2,075.0% during the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CME. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on CME Group from $353.00 to $324.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised 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. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.12.

CME Group Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $245.05 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $258.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $282.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.80 billion, a PE ratio of 20.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.25.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. The company 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.80 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 44.37%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.