Greenwood Capital Associates LLC Grows Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Greenwood Capital Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 29.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 27,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,346 shares during the period. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $6,167,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the topic of several analyst reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Erste Group Bank cut CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. TD Cowen decreased 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 report on Monday, June 22nd. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $285.80 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $253.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.13. The company has a market cap of $102.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.96 EPS. Sell-side 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 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. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.11%.

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 that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost 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 approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.