Woodline Partners LP Purchases 8,804 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Key Points

• Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in CME Group Inc. by 40.7% in the first quarter, owning a total of 30,445 shares valued at approximately $8.08 million.
• CME Group recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.25 per share, with an annualized dividend yield of 1.9%, to be paid on September 25th.
• The firm reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, and noted a 10.4% increase in revenue compared to the previous year.

Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) by 40.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,445 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 8,804 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP's holdings in CME Group were worth $8,077,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 29.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 86,941 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $20,190,000 after buying an additional 19,533 shares during the period. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $551,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 64,586 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $14,999,000 after buying an additional 3,618 shares during the last quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $810,000. Finally, Man Group plc lifted its holdings in CME Group by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Man Group plc now owns 192,020 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $44,593,000 after buying an additional 22,049 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME traded down $0.08 on Friday, hitting $262.30. 1,537,684 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,812,941. The business's fifty day moving average is $273.60 and its 200 day moving average is $270.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.75 and a beta of 0.43. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $212.38 and a fifty-two week high of $290.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 58.48% and a return on equity of 14.60%. CME Group's revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 256 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $270.53 per share, for a total transaction of $69,255.68. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 258,196 shares in the company, valued at $69,849,763.88. This represents a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total value of $3,229,407.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 17,440 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,734,436.80. This trade represents a 40.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CME. Piper Sandler raised their target price on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Barclays set a $298.00 target price on CME Group and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of CME Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of CME Group from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $260.60.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.