Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Makes New $17 Million Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 76,988 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,001,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its position in CME Group by 2,075.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 191.9% during the 4th quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Finally, Main Street Group LTD acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 1st quarter worth $32,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price 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. Nine 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $288.56.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $277.32 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market cap of $99.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $279.35.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The company’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.96 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share 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. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.