Quantinno Capital Management LP Grows Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 31.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 154,114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,844 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP’s holdings in CME Group were worth $45,518,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at $1,523,241,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in CME Group by 746.4% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,049,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,720,000 after buying an additional 1,807,491 shares in the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $217,656,000. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth about $164,648,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,895,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,802,366,000 after acquiring an additional 588,509 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on CME Group from $356.00 to $349.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th. UBS Group lowered their price target 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. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $291.81.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME opened at $265.44 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $251.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $281.11. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The company has a market cap of $96.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.96 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 44.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total value of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. This trade represents a 38.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company 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.