Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Increases Holdings in CME Group Inc. $CME

Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd. boosted its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 95.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 200,237 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 97,697 shares during the period. CME Group comprises approximately 1.4% of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $44,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CME Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,749,965,000. State Street Corp raised its position in CME Group by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,144,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,408,747,000 after purchasing an additional 56,725 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter worth $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in CME Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,924,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,344,776,000 after purchasing an additional 134,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its stake in CME Group by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,319,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,179,858,000 after purchasing an additional 222,890 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CME Group Stock Up 0.3%

NASDAQ CME opened at $286.45 on Wednesday. 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 capitalization of $103.00 billion, a PE ratio of 24.30, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.24. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The business’s 50-day moving average is $255.48 and its 200 day moving average is $278.67.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.CME Group’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. Sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s payout ratio is 44.11%.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised their price objective on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

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.