60,000 Shares in CME Group Inc. $CME Acquired by PDT Partners LLC

PDT Partners LLC bought a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 60,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $13,250,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $2,122,000. Haverford Trust Co purchased a new stake in CME Group during the second quarter worth approximately $13,818,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,376,000 after purchasing an additional 22,692 shares during the last quarter. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board acquired a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,368,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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 PE ratio of 23.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $251.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $279.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.96 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on CME. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

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.