Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Invests $12.96 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 59,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,960,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,037 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings 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 valued at $1,018,000 after buying an additional 121,707 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings 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 valued at $6,497,000 after buying an additional 21,918 shares during the period. Nebula Research & Development LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew 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 buying an additional 7,397 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CME shares. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group decreased their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Bank of America increased their price target 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, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $286.00 to $270.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $285.80 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $253.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $279.13. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $218.31 and a 52 week high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $102.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.