GSA Capital Partners LLP Makes New Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 12,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,807,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 588,509 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in CME Group by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,408,747,000 after purchasing an additional 56,725 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in CME Group by 2.8% during the 4th 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. grew its position in shares of CME Group by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,179,858,000 after buying an additional 222,890 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.81.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $269.80 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $250.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $280.22. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $97.01 billion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.96 EPS. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total transaction of $1,752,536.39. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,438,860.26. This trade represents 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 company insiders.

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.