Thornburg Investment Management Inc. Has $250.08 Million Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. trimmed its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,132,435 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 13,007 shares during the quarter. CME Group accounts for 2.4% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $250,076,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $2,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 103.1% in the second 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. increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 1,325.2% in the second 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 position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in CME Group by 2.6% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction 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 represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $285.80 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $102.77 billion, a PE ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.23. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $253.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $279.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year 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 (EPS) 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 analyst estimates 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 was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.96 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced 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. Nine equities 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.