L2 Asset Management LLC Takes $501,000 Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

L2 Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,266 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $501,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CME. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in CME Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,408,747,000 after buying an additional 56,725 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,344,776,000 after acquiring an additional 134,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,179,858,000 after acquiring an additional 222,890 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $277.32 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $279.35. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. 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 market cap of $99.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released 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. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

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 given 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 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.