Meyer Handelman Co. Boosts Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Meyer Handelman Co. grew its stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 8.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 87,314 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,477 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $25,788,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 64.9% in the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates raised its holdings in CME Group by 1,250.0% in the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on CME shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of CME Group from $362.00 to $353.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. UBS Group reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of CME Group in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.24.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,438,860.26. The trade was a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CME Group Trading Down 2.9%

CME Group stock opened at $225.00 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $224.40 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The company has a market capitalization of $81.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.21. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $274.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $286.20. 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 (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The company’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.37%.

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.