UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME – Free Report) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 8,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,825,000.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 6.9% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 132.7% in the 4th quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 21,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,797,000 after acquiring an additional 12,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,368,000. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities research analysts have weighed in on CME shares. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Barclays decreased their price target on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.81.
CME Group Stock Down 0.7%
CME Group stock opened at $267.88 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $218.31 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $250.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $280.07. The stock has a market cap of $96.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23.
CME Group (NASDAQ:CME – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.96 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.
CME Group Announces Dividend
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 issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.11%.
Insider Activity at CME Group
In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.
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.
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