Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Invests $658,000 in CME Group Inc. $CME

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,978 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $658,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in CME Group during the second quarter worth $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in CME Group by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after buying an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after acquiring an additional 134,242 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $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 and hedge funds.

CME Group Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $277.32 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $99.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.23. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $251.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $279.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company 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 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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 ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 22nd. UBS Group lowered their price target on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised 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, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Nine 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average 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.