243,040 Shares in CME Group Inc. $CME Bought by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 243,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $53,671,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 2,075.0% during the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID increased its holdings in CME Group by 191.9% during the 4th quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Group LTD purchased a new position in CME Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Erste Group Bank cut shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, July 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:CME opened at $280.98 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market cap of $101.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.83, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $252.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $279.24. 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 quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.71 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.96 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors 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 yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.