CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Acquired by Cromwell Holdings LLC

Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 31.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $276,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in CME Group by 7,676.3% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 2,205,041 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $584,975,000 after purchasing an additional 2,176,685 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in CME Group by 370.5% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,653,957 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $704,068,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089,935 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in CME Group in the first quarter valued at about $218,842,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in CME Group by 185.5% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,244,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $330,182,000 after purchasing an additional 808,740 shares during the period. Finally, Egerton Capital UK LLP increased its position in shares of CME Group by 79.4% during the first quarter. Egerton Capital UK LLP now owns 1,730,194 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $459,003,000 after acquiring an additional 765,773 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on CME Group from $246.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. UBS Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Citigroup raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $275.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Barclays set a $298.00 price objective on CME Group and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $274.15.

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $265.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.83 and a beta of 0.41. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $213.94 and a 1 year high of $290.79. The business’s fifty day moving average is $270.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $271.11. 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) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a net margin of 58.48% and a return on equity of 14.60%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 48.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total transaction of $3,229,407.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares in the company, valued at $4,734,436.80. This represents a 40.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 258,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,540,742.21. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 13,043 shares of company stock valued at $3,527,956. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Company Profile

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.