Aberdeen Group plc Acquires 9,594 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Aberdeen Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 620,828 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,594 shares during the quarter. Aberdeen Group plc’s holdings in CME Group were worth $169,542,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Heartland Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in CME Group in the first quarter worth $377,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in CME Group by 256.9% in the first quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $971,000 after purchasing an additional 2,636 shares in the last quarter. OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. bought a new position in CME Group in the first quarter worth $367,000. Fulcrum Equity Management bought a new position in CME Group in the first quarter worth $258,000. Finally, AIA Group Ltd raised its holdings in CME Group by 17.8% in the first quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 16,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,416,000 after purchasing an additional 2,510 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on CME Group from $276.00 to $266.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on CME Group from $313.00 to $304.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. UBS Group cut their target price on CME Group from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $281.00.

CME Group Trading Up 1.0%

CME Group stock opened at $271.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $213.94 and a one year high of $290.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.83 billion, a PE ratio of 26.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.41. The business’s fifty day moving average is $268.89 and its 200 day moving average is $271.17.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%.The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 9th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 392 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.00, for a total transaction of $102,704.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 7,851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,056,962. This trade represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total value of $3,229,407.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares in the company, valued at $4,734,436.80. This trade represents a 40.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 13,043 shares of company stock valued at $3,527,956. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Profile

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.