Plato Investment Management Ltd Takes $2.73 Million Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 12,435 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,730,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth about $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6.9% during 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 increased its position in CME Group by 132.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 12,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board acquired a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,368,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $269.80 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $250.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $280.19. The company has a market capitalization of $97.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-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.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. CME Group’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CME. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $291.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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.