Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. Buys New Shares in CME Group Inc. $CME

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 2,851,836 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $629,771,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CME. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $6,497,000 after buying an additional 21,918 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of CME Group by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,344,000 after buying an additional 7,397 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CME. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Barclays cut their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on CME Group from $342.00 to $322.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Ten 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.81.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $269.80 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $250.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $280.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.11%.

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.