Equitable Holdings Inc. Invests $1.20 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Equitable Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,454 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,204,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% in the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 191.9% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $305.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of CME Group from a "strong sell" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Nine investment 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $288.56.

CME Group Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ CME opened at $285.80 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $102.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.23. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $253.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $279.13. 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 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. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The company'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. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

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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