Stamos Capital Partners L.P. Increases Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Stamos Capital Partners L.P. increased its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 22.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 13,731 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,542 shares during the quarter. Stamos Capital Partners L.P.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $3,785,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 1.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,695,313,000 after purchasing an additional 532,549 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,524,271,000 after buying an additional 319,899 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,571,447,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its holdings in CME Group by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,091,401,000 after acquiring an additional 363,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in CME Group by 6.6% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,833,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,056,476,000 after acquiring an additional 238,522 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of several research reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Argus reduced their target price on CME Group from $308.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $275.00 to $300.00 in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on CME Group from $264.00 to $263.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $289.18.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the transaction, the director owned 258,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,540,742.21. This represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Jonathan L. Marcus sold 392 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.00, for a total value of $102,704.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 7,851 shares in the company, valued at $2,056,962. The trade was a 4.76% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,147 shares of company stock valued at $562,079. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $270.12 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $271.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $272.52. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $224.62 and a 52 week high of $290.79. The company has a market cap of $97.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 58.84%.The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 48.45%.

About CME Group

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.