Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC Takes $7.50 Million Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Clear Harbor Asset Management initiated a $7.5 million position in CME Group during the second quarter by purchasing 33,982 shares. Institutional investors collectively own 87.75% of the company, while insider ownership stands at 0.30%.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: nine analysts rate CME Group a Buy, six a Hold and three a Sell, resulting in a consensus Hold rating and an average price target of $288.56.
• CME Group exceeded quarterly expectations with adjusted earnings of $2.99 per share and revenue of $1.71 billion. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $1.30 per share, equivalent to a 1.9% annualized yield.

Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 33,982 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,504,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $96,376,000 after acquiring an additional 22,692 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 132.7% in the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 21,228 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $5,797,000 after acquiring an additional 12,105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $3,368,000. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents 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 the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on CME shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $288.56.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $274.98 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.88 billion, a PE ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $251.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.65. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.96 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.11%.

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.

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