Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC Takes Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 6,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,330,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in CME Group by 11.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,660,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 103.1% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,018,000 after acquiring an additional 121,707 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1,325.2% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,497,000 after acquiring an additional 21,918 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 7,397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME Group stock opened at $274.98 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $98.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $251.17 and a 200-day moving average of $279.65.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.CME Group’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.96 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on CME. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. 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 report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 6th. 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 MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.