WealthShield Partners LLC Invests $2.72 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

WealthShield Partners LLC bought a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 12,318 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,720,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in CME Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after buying an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in CME Group by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after buying an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,523,241,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,344,776,000 after acquiring an additional 134,242 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of CME stock opened at $274.98 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $251.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $279.65. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16. The company has a market capitalization of $98.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 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 earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate 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.