PYA Waltman Capital LLC Buys New Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

PYA Waltman Capital LLC purchased a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 11,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,571,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $612,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $53,671,000. FLC Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,122,000. Haverford Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth approximately $13,818,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,376,000 after purchasing an additional 22,692 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME opened at $286.45 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $103.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.30, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $255.48 and a 200 day moving average of $278.67. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The business 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%.CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CME. Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In related 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 bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group 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.