Portfolio Design Labs LLC Purchases Shares of 4,501 CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Portfolio Design Labs initiated a CME Group position by purchasing 4,501 shares valued at approximately $994,000. Institutional investors collectively own 87.75% of CME’s outstanding stock.
• Analyst views remain mixed: nine analysts rate CME a Buy, six a Hold and three a Sell, producing a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $288.56.
• CME reported quarterly earnings of $2.99 per share and revenue of $1.71 billion, exceeding estimates, and declared a quarterly dividend of $1.30 per share, equivalent to a 1.9% annual yield.

Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,501 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $994,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter valued at $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 22,692 shares during the last quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,368,000. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC raised its position in CME Group by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 999,530 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $272,952,000 after purchasing an additional 10,602 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price 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 approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on CME shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded CME Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $286.00 to $270.00 in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $288.56.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $270.87 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $251.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group's payout ratio is currently 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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