Dearborn Partners LLC Takes Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Dearborn Partners LLC bought a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 92,074 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $20,333,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth approximately $612,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $53,671,000. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,122,000. Haverford Trust Co bought a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $13,818,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in CME Group by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,376,000 after acquiring an additional 22,692 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Down 0.0%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $280.94 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $253.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $279.09. 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. The company has a market cap of $101.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.96 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was 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 this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. UBS Group cut 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

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.