Principle Wealth Partners LLC Takes $565,000 Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Principle Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 2,558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $565,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Alphabet Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $769,376,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $629,771,000. Mufg Bank LTD. bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,625,000. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $675,000. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,730,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on CME shares. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Bank of America upped their target price on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target 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. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.81.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost 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 in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CME Group Stock Down 0.7%

CME stock opened at $267.88 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $96.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $280.07.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

CME Group Company 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.