Advisors Capital Management LLC Acquires Shares of 117,191 CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Advisors Capital Management acquired 117,191 CME Group shares worth approximately $25.9 million during the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own 87.75% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: CME has an average “Hold” rating and an average price target of $288.56, with several firms recently lowering targets while Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded the stock to “Outperform.”
• CME Group exceeded quarterly expectations with $2.99 in earnings per share and $1.71 billion in revenue. The company also declared a $1.30 quarterly dividend, equivalent to $5.20 annually and a 1.9% yield.

Advisors Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 117,191 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $25,879,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CME. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in CME Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $9,802,366,000 after buying an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,408,747,000 after acquiring an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in CME Group by 2.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 134,242 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group lowered their price target on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of CME Group from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $305.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen lowered CME Group from a "sell" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $288.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

NASDAQ CME opened at $270.87 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average is $251.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $279.68. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one 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 market cap of $97.40 billion, a PE ratio of 22.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.96 EPS. Analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.

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