VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires Shares of 166,400 CME Group Inc. $CME

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 166,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $36,746,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Bayban purchased a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME opened at $281.29 on Tuesday. 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 stock has a market cap of $101.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.24. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $260.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $278.05.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.96 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CME. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $292.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $289.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William Shepard acquired 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company 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.