Meyer Handelman Co. Acquires 9,288 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Meyer Handelman Co. increased its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,288 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $22,075,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 65,704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,109,000 after acquiring an additional 9,463 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $246,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 12,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,365,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 4,104.2% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 28,841 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,949,000 after purchasing an additional 28,155 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CME. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on CME Group from $262.00 to $266.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $305.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $295.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $304.06.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director Dennis Suskind sold 748 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $224,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,699 shares in the company, valued at $809,700. This represents a 21.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 43,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,539 shares of company stock valued at $2,713,821. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $295.35 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $248.53 and a twelve month high of $329.16. The company has a market cap of $105.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $303.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $282.36.

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

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 46.59%.

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.