Commerce Bank Buys Shares of 151,118 CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Commerce Bank acquired 151,118 CME Group shares during the second quarter, valued at approximately $33.4 million. Several other institutional investors also initiated positions, and institutions now own 87.75% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed, with nine Buy, six Hold, and three Sell ratings. The consensus rating is Hold, with an average price target of $288.56.
• CME Group exceeded quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $2.99 in EPS and $1.71 billion in revenue. The company also declared a $1.30 quarterly dividend, equivalent to a 1.9% annualized yield.

Commerce Bank bought a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 151,118 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $33,371,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,175,000. Academy Capital Management bought a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,629,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,270,000. Evolve Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $929,000. Finally, WealthShield Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $2,720,000. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays dropped their price target on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. UBS Group lowered their target price 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 raised shares of CME Group from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $274.98 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The company has a market cap of $98.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.17 and a 200 day simple moving average 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business's revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.96 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

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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