PineStone Asset Management Inc. Purchases 29,509 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,570,087 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,509 shares during the quarter. CME Group makes up approximately 4.3% of PineStone Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. PineStone Asset Management Inc. owned 0.71% of CME Group worth $694,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,571,447,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in CME Group by 185.5% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,244,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $330,182,000 after buying an additional 808,740 shares during the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP bought a new position in CME Group during the second quarter valued at about $164,648,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 1.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,695,313,000 after buying an additional 532,549 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 131,625.5% during the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 486,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $133,970,000 after acquiring an additional 485,698 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on CME Group from $282.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Argus decreased their target price on CME Group from $308.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $280.00 to $304.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of CME Group from $285.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $290.82.

CME Group Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of CME stock opened at $276.73 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.28. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $224.62 and a 1 year high of $290.79. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $273.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $271.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a net margin of 58.84% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.68 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Harold Eugene Jr. Ford sold 1,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.53, for a total transaction of $263,530.00. Following the sale, the director owned 1,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $287,511.23. This trade represents a 47.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total value of $6,738,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,737,468.20. This represents a 27.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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.