Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Acquires 728 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,622 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in CME Group were worth $2,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 31.2% during the second quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $276,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.5% during the second quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 12,317 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,395,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1.4% during the second quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,771 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,039,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 22.4% during the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 81,446 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,448,000 after purchasing an additional 14,921 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower View Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter worth $136,000. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CME has been the topic of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on CME Group from $283.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Wall Street Zen cut CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, July 13th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on CME Group from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 8th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $274.15.

CME Group Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $264.67 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $213.94 and a 1-year high of $290.79. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $269.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a PEG ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 0.41.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%.The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th were paid a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 262 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 258,459 shares in the company, valued at $68,540,742.21. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total value of $3,229,407.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 17,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,734,436.80. This represents a 40.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 13,043 shares of company stock worth $3,527,956. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Profile

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.