Haverford Trust Co Buys Shares of 62,575 CME Group Inc. $CME

Haverford Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 62,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $13,818,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $6,749,965,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth $867,313,000. Alphabet Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter worth $769,376,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter worth $629,771,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Stock Up 1.5%

CME opened at $274.98 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $98.88 billion, a PE ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $251.17 and its 200-day moving average is $279.65.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.96 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Company 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.