Syntax Research Inc. Buys Shares of 3,564 CME Group Inc. $CME

Syntax Research Inc. purchased a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,564 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $787,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CME. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $612,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $53,671,000. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at $2,122,000. Haverford Trust Co bought a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth $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.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William Shepard acquired 325 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $289.75.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $282.05 on Friday. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $257.55 and its 200-day moving average is $278.36. The firm has a market cap of $101.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.24.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.11%.

CME Group 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.