Legal & General Group Plc Invests $503.11 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 2,278,275 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $503,111,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of 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 valued at $4,408,747,000 after buying an additional 56,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in CME Group by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,344,776,000 after acquiring an additional 134,242 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its holdings in 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 worth $1,179,858,000 after acquiring an additional 222,890 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of CME stock opened at $279.17 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $218.31 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $251.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $279.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.96 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share 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. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on CME. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised 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 report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings downgraded 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 note on Saturday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.