Daiichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Buys Shares of 77,033 CME Group Inc. $CME

Daiichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 77,033 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,011,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CME. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 11,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,147,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its holdings in CME Group by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in CME Group by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 895 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $244,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. NBT Bank N A NY boosted its stake in CME Group by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 1,666 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in CME Group by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,073 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $274.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $251.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $279.65. The stock has a market cap of $98.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.11%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

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.