Quantbot Technologies LP Takes $1.27 Million Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,752 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,270,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Evolve Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $929,000. WealthShield Partners LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,720,000. Farringdon Capital Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $209,000. W1M Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $347,510,000. Finally, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $18,306,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Barclays lowered their target price on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. 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 stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

CME Group Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ CME opened at $277.32 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $99.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $251.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $279.35.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 earned $2.96 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

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 $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%.

CME Group Profile

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.