Wellington Management Group LLP Buys 358,018 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 24.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,815,817 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 358,018 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in CME Group were worth $400,987,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter valued at about $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp grew its position in CME Group by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,408,747,000 after purchasing an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in CME Group by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after purchasing an additional 134,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in CME Group by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,179,858,000 after buying an additional 222,890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $285.80 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $253.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $279.13. The company has a market cap of $102.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.23.

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, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade 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. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on CME shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of CME Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price target on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 6th. Barclays reduced their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

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.