Global Retirement Partners LLC Invests $2.33 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 10,558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,332,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth $867,313,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 746.4% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,720,000 after buying an additional 1,807,491 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in CME Group by 39.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,019,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,187,290,000 after buying an additional 1,130,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $217,656,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group reduced their price target on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. Bank of America raised their price objective on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $291.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME stock opened at $269.80 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $250.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $280.19. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The firm has a market cap of $97.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 payout ratio is 44.11%.

CME Group Company 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.