CME Group Inc. $CME Holdings Increased by Balefire LLC

Balefire LLC grew its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 81.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,739 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,130 shares during the period. Balefire LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,242,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CME. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 56,725 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in CME Group by 39.1% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,019,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,187,290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130,587 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $867,313,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,074,773 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $839,659,000 after acquiring an additional 208,318 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CME Group from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of CME Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on CME Group from $292.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $292.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 293 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $268.76 per share, with a total value of $78,746.68. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 263,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $70,761,551.64. This represents a 0.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.44, for a total value of $4,116,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 40,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,150,497.20. This trade represents a 26.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME stock traded up $4.12 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $280.56. 2,593,085 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,533,263. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $100.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.80, a PEG ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 0.24. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $271.81 and its 200 day moving average is $271.19.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.96 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

CME Group Company Profile

CME Group Inc operates global derivatives marketplaces that enable customers to manage risk and trade futures and options contracts. Its exchanges offer products linked to interest rates, equity indexes, foreign currencies, agricultural commodities, energy, metals and other asset classes.

The company also provides central counterparty clearing, settlement and related risk-management services for transactions conducted on its markets. In addition, CME Group offers market data, benchmark products and technology services that support trading, analysis and connectivity for financial institutions, businesses, professional traders and other market participants.

CME Group’s history includes the Chicago Board of Trade, founded in 1848, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, established in 1898.