Emerald Investment Advisers LLC Buys Shares of 4,505 CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Emerald Investment Advisers initiated a CME Group position by purchasing 4,505 shares valued at approximately $995,000. Institutional investors collectively own 87.75% of the company.
• CME Group reported quarterly earnings of $2.99 per share and revenue of $1.71 billion, exceeding analyst estimates, while revenue rose 0.8% year over year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.30, equivalent to $5.20 annually and a 1.9% yield. Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating with an average price target of $288.56.

Emerald Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,505 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $995,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at $6,749,965,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $867,313,000. Alphabet Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $769,376,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $629,771,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company's stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME opened at $274.98 on Friday. The stock 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $98.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $2.96 EPS. The business's revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. TD Cowen lowered their target price on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of CME Group from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $288.56.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased 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 owned 260,442 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed 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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