Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab Invests $11.56 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 52,331 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,556,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors bought a new position in CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in CME Group by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,376,000 after purchasing an additional 22,692 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in CME Group by 132.7% in the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 21,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,797,000 after purchasing an additional 12,105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board purchased a new stake in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,368,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of CME stock opened at $271.54 on Wednesday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $97.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $279.97.

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. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.96 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

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 of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CME. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price target on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $291.81.

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.