Cornerstone Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 65,647 CME Group Inc. $CME

Cornerstone Advisors LLC bought a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 65,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $14,497,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asset Dedication LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 64.9% in the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 2,075.0% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID grew its stake in shares of CME Group by 191.9% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CME shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Bank of America increased their price objective on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler cut their target price on CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $291.81.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $267.88 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $96.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $250.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $280.07. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.96 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Company 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.