RiverFront Investment Group LLC Makes New $516,000 Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

RiverFront Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 1,891 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CME. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,037 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in CME Group by 103.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,018,000 after buying an additional 121,707 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in CME Group by 1,325.2% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,497,000 after buying an additional 21,918 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in CME Group by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $79,344,000 after buying an additional 7,397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.65, for a total value of $1,300,530.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.90, for a total transaction of $91,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 24,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,647,194.10. This trade represents a 1.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 42,791 shares of company stock valued at $12,937,271. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Up 2.1%

CME stock opened at $305.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $297.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $288.46. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $257.17 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. 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 $110.56 billion, a PE ratio of 26.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. CME Group’s payout ratio is 44.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CME. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $313.00 to $329.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of CME Group from $343.00 to $316.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of CME Group from $340.00 to $323.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods began coverage on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $305.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.29.

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.