Primecap Management Co. CA Takes $420.60 Million Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,904,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $420,602,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,749,965,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth approximately $867,313,000. Alphabet Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth approximately $769,376,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $629,771,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CME shares. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Erste Group Bank lowered CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised 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 note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $277.32 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The company has a 50 day moving average of $251.75 and a 200-day moving average of $279.35. 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 cap of $99.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.96 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, 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 at this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.