7,337 Shares in CME Group Inc. $CME Purchased by Meeder Advisory Services Inc.

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 7,337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,620,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% during the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID increased its holdings in CME Group by 191.9% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anfield Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in CME Group by 197.4% during the fourth quarter. Anfield Capital Management LLC now owns 113 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the firm’s 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 purchase, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This 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 this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Down 1.7%

CME stock opened at $266.94 on Thursday. 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 fifty day moving average price of $250.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $279.81. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $95.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.96 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on CME. Wall Street Zen cut shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings cut shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 6th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

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.