Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lowered its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 58.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 151,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 213,223 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $41,805,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,643,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,190,661,000 after purchasing an additional 400,737 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 9.7% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,113,991 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,091,401,000 after purchasing an additional 363,130 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of CME Group by 3.0% in the second quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,920,046 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $804,823,000 after acquiring an additional 84,005 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in CME Group by 29.9% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,818,590 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $747,744,000 after purchasing an additional 648,591 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,783,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $735,539,000 after buying an additional 260,065 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $269.54 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 6.19 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $266.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $271.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $213.94 and a 12 month high of $290.79.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 48.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on CME shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $252.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, July 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of CME Group from $312.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on CME Group from $313.00 to $304.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $284.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 262 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the purchase, the director owned 258,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,540,742.21. The trade was a 0.10% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Timothy Francis Mccourt sold 379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.83, for a total transaction of $98,475.57. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 9,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,470,463.64. This trade represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,043 shares of company stock worth $3,527,956 over the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Profile

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.