Nykredit A S Makes New $34.09 Million Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

Nykredit A S acquired a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 154,380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $34,092,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 103.1% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,018,000 after purchasing an additional 121,707 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 1,325.2% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,497,000 after purchasing an additional 21,918 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC bought a new position in CME Group in the second quarter worth $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in CME Group by 2.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 7,397 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CME shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $292.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of CME Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $289.75.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $282.05 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $257.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.36. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The firm has a market cap of $101.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.