Militia Capital Management LLC Takes Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Militia Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 8,660 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,558,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of CME Group by 746.4% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,720,000 after purchasing an additional 1,807,491 shares during the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,656,000. Viking Global Investors LP bought a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in CME Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after buying an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting CME Group

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: CME Group posted Q2 adjusted earnings of $2.99 per share, topping estimates, while revenue of about $1.71 billion also beat forecasts. The upside was supported by strong hedging demand and active derivatives trading, which reinforced confidence in the company’s core exchange business. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Management said the first half of 2026 was the strongest in company history for revenue, adjusted operating income, adjusted net income, and adjusted diluted EPS, suggesting momentum remains solid heading into the rest of the year. Quiver Quantitative article
• Positive Sentiment: Trading volumes were strong, with average daily volume near 29.8 million contracts and record market data revenue of $238 million, both of which support the view that CME is benefiting from elevated market activity and pricing power. Seeking Alpha presentation
• Positive Sentiment: Shares also gained support from unusual call-option buying and broader investor interest following the earnings beat, which can reinforce near-term upward momentum. Quiver Quantitative options flow article
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Terrence Duffy pushed back on market chatter about potential perpetual-futures products, saying clients are not demanding them. That appears to have been a side issue rather than a direct driver of the move. Bloomberg article

CME Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CME opened at $249.24 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The company has a market cap of $90.31 billion, a PE ratio of 21.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $255.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $281.51. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.96 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.37%.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was 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 approximately $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. The trade was 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 corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CME. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded CME Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 6th. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.12.

CME Group 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.