North Star Asset Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 5,544 CME Group Inc. $CME

North Star Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,544 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,224,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $2,660,000 after buying an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake 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. increased its stake 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 position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 2.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 7,397 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CME. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of CME Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CME Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of CME opened at $285.80 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $253.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $279.13. 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 firm has a market cap of $102.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.96 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.11%.

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.