Cullinan Associates Inc. Sells 2,790 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Cullinan Associates Inc. reduced its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 9.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 27,897 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,790 shares during the quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $6,160,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 29.4% during the 2nd quarter. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC now owns 27,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,167,000 after acquiring an additional 6,346 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in shares of CME Group by 8.5% in the second quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 17,935 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,961,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in CME Group by 30.4% during the second quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 716,972 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $158,329,000 after acquiring an additional 167,126 shares during the period. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. lifted its holdings in CME Group by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. now owns 10,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,410,000 after purchasing an additional 936 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan lifted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.7% in the second quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan now owns 57,324 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,659,000 after buying an additional 1,516 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CME Group Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ CME opened at $285.80 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $253.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $279.13. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.31 and a 12-month high of $329.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market cap of $102.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for 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 company’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.96 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.11%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on CME shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, 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 ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About CME Group

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.