CORDA Investment Management LLC. Purchases Shares of 215,229 CME Group Inc. $CME

CORDA Investment Management LLC. purchased a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 215,229 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $47,529,000. CME Group accounts for about 2.9% of CORDA Investment Management LLC.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in CME Group during the second quarter valued at about $867,313,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in CME Group by 746.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,720,000 after acquiring an additional 1,807,491 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in CME Group by 39.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,019,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,187,290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $217,656,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. The trade was a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director 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. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. UBS Group reduced their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $291.81.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $269.80 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The company has a 50 day moving average of $250.20 and a 200-day moving average of $280.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market cap of $97.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.CME Group’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.96 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

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.