California State Teachers Retirement System Decreases Stock Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

California State Teachers Retirement System lessened its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 595,089 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 15,486 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.16% of CME Group worth $175,760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 valued at $9,802,366,000 after purchasing an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,408,747,000 after purchasing an additional 56,725 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after buying an additional 134,242 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,179,858,000 after buying an additional 222,890 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the firm’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 value of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $291.81.

CME Group Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $260.00 on Wednesday. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $252.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $281.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.96 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current 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 given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

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.