CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Bought by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 26.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 74,655 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,469 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $20,171,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CME. Amundi boosted its holdings in CME Group by 24.0% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,987,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $548,150,000 after purchasing an additional 385,225 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in CME Group by 8.9% in the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 70,712 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,106,000 after buying an additional 5,773 shares during the last quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 86.0% during the third quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 29,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,896,000 after purchasing an additional 13,512 shares during the period. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in CME Group by 85.2% during the 3rd quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,519 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 3,919 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in CME Group by 310.2% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Financial Group LLC now owns 3,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $839,000 after purchasing an additional 2,302 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CME. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on CME Group from $264.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of CME Group from $304.00 to $302.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 12th. Argus cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $308.00 to $295.00 in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their target price on CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Nine equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.53.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME opened at $307.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $247.08 and a 1-year high of $322.57. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $285.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $275.45. The firm has a market cap of $110.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.54, a PEG ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.27.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 62.45% and a return on equity of 14.65%. CME Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.52 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. This is a positive change from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.80%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total value of $6,738,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares in the company, valued at $17,737,468.20. This represents a 27.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total transaction of $1,300,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,317,117.55. This trade represents a 8.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock worth $8,355,450 in the last ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.