Headlands Technologies LLC Purchases Shares of 55,716 CME Group Inc. $CME

Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 55,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,304,000. CME Group comprises approximately 1.3% of Headlands Technologies LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest holding.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in CME Group by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in CME Group by 103.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,018,000 after purchasing an additional 121,707 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1,325.2% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,497,000 after buying an additional 21,918 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,344,000 after buying an additional 7,397 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. 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. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded 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. Wall Street Zen raised CME Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. Bank of America boosted their price target on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price 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. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $285.80 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $102.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $253.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $278.93. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.96 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 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.