Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC Takes Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 48,505 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,711,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in CME Group by 103.1% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,018,000 after buying an additional 121,707 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in CME Group by 1,325.2% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,497,000 after buying an additional 21,918 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in CME Group by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,344,000 after buying an additional 7,397 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the subject of several research reports. Erste Group Bank cut CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price 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. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $291.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. The trade was a 17.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $269.80 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $250.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $280.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The company has a market capitalization of $97.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 44.11%.

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.