Magellan Asset Management Ltd Makes New Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

Magellan Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 36,996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,170,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in CME Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $2,122,000. Haverford Trust Co bought a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $13,818,000. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6.9% during the fourth 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 period. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 132.7% in the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 21,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,797,000 after purchasing an additional 12,105 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of 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. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $274.98 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $98.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.23. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $251.17 and a 200-day moving average of $279.57. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.96 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.11%.

Insider Activity

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

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.