West Family Investments Inc. Buys New Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,089 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $461,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its position 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 valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in CME Group in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID increased its stake in CME Group by 191.9% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Barclays decreased their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Up 1.5%

CME opened at $270.87 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $251.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $279.68. The company has a market cap of $97.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.96 EPS. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 purchase, the director 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 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.