Commerce Bank Acquires Shares of 151,118 CME Group Inc. $CME

Commerce Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 151,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $33,371,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,175,000. Academy Capital Management bought a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,629,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,270,000. Evolve Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $929,000. Finally, WealthShield Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,720,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays dropped their price target on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $274.98 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $251.17 and a 200-day moving average of $279.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.23.

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. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.96 EPS. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given 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 is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.11%.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Company 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.