Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Purchases 4,032 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA raised its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 29.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 17,518 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,032 shares during the quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings in CME Group were worth $5,174,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,523,241,000. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,006,932,000. Strive Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $636,487,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in CME Group by 746.4% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $559,720,000 after purchasing an additional 1,807,491 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $217,656,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Trading Down 1.8%

NASDAQ CME opened at $221.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $273.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $285.74. The stock has a market cap of $80.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.21. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $220.73 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Barclays decreased their price target on CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.24.

About CME Group

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.