Cornerstone Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Cornerstone Advisors LLC purchased a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 65,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $14,497,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,749,965,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $867,313,000. Alphabet Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $769,376,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $629,771,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $267.88 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $250.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $280.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16.

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

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CME shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.81.

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.