Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 6,510 CME Group Inc. $CME

Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 6,510 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,438,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in CME Group during the second quarter worth about $35,991,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $121,443,000. Man Group plc purchased a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $19,927,000. Western Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,598,000. Finally, Invst LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $382,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, 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 purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CME Group Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $280.98 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $101.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $252.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $279.24. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

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 given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen downgraded CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Barclays reduced their price target on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

About CME Group

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.