Arlington Partners LLC Acquires New Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Arlington Partners LLC invested approximately $2.18 million in CME Group Inc. by acquiring 7,893 shares during the second quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG and GTS Securities LLC, have significantly increased their stakes in CME Group, leading to institutional ownership of about 87.75%.
• Equity analysts have set various target prices for CME Group, with Barclays rating it "equal weight" at $298.00 and Citigroup raising its target from $265.00 to $275.00.

Arlington Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,893 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,175,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,643,827 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $9,190,661,000 after buying an additional 400,737 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,091,401,000 after buying an additional 363,130 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of CME Group by 29.9% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,818,590 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $747,744,000 after buying an additional 648,591 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,783,759 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $735,539,000 after buying an additional 260,065 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,727,809 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $723,660,000 after buying an additional 290,147 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 256 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $270.53 per share, with a total value of $69,255.68. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 258,196 shares in the company, valued at $69,849,763.88. The trade was a 0.10% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total transaction of $3,229,407.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares in the company, valued at $4,734,436.80. This represents a 40.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 13,043 shares of company stock worth $3,527,956. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME Group stock traded down $0.45 on Monday, reaching $261.08. 1,143,012 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,903,585. The stock has a market cap of $94.09 billion, a PE ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 4.73 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $212.60 and a twelve month high of $290.79. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $271.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $270.86.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 58.48% and a return on equity of 14.60%. The business's revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group's payout ratio is presently 48.40%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays set a $298.00 price objective on CME Group and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Citigroup raised their price objective on CME Group from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered CME Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Sunday, July 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $260.60.

CME Group Profile

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.