CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Acquired by Edgestream Partners L.P.

Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 19.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,535 shares during the quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $4,558,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,523,241,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 746.4% during 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 during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,656,000. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after purchasing an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME opened at $267.79 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $250.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.05. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The firm has a market cap of $96.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CME shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $291.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the sale, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. This represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% 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 insiders.

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.