Janus Henderson Group PLC Purchases 621,713 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 24.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,135,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 621,713 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $728,260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in CME Group by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,243,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,952,273,000 after purchasing an additional 326,623 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,389,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,946,717,000 after acquiring an additional 104,697 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 89.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,280,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,923,047,000 after acquiring an additional 3,921,278 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,107,389,000. Finally, FIL Ltd increased its position in CME Group by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,081,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $947,821,000 after purchasing an additional 61,908 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total transaction of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total transaction of $2,888,378.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 21,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,726 shares of company stock worth $8,975,813 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $284.35 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $102.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.41, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $264.47 and its 200-day moving average is $245.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $190.70 and a 12 month high of $286.48.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.50 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CME. Barclays raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $279.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $269.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $256.80.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.