57,177 Shares in CME Group Inc. $CME Acquired by Sanctuary Advisors LLC

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 57,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,626,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID raised its stake in CME Group by 191.9% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on CME shares. TD Cowen lowered 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. Bank of America increased their price objective on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $274.98 on Monday. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $251.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $279.57. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.23.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. 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.