Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Purchases Shares of 76,988 CME Group Inc. $CME

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 76,988 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,001,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its position in CME Group by 2,075.0% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 191.9% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Group LTD bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $277.32 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The business has a 50 day moving average of $251.75 and a 200-day moving average of $279.35. 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 $99.72 billion, a PE ratio of 23.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.11%.

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 price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $288.56.

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.