Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab Increases Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab increased its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 20.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 50,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,333 shares during the quarter. Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab’s holdings in CME Group were worth $14,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth $1,523,241,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $559,720,000 after purchasing an additional 1,807,491 shares during the period. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at $217,656,000. Viking Global Investors LP purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter valued at $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in CME Group by 1.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Down 3.1%

Shares of CME opened at $237.41 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $256.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.68.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The firm’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.18 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of CME Group from $353.00 to $324.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.12.

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.