Diversify Advisory Services LLC Takes Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 40,726 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,400,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors purchased a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in CME Group by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,376,000 after acquiring an additional 22,692 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its stake in CME Group by 132.7% during the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 21,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,797,000 after acquiring an additional 12,105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board acquired a new stake in CME Group during the fourth quarter worth $3,368,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased 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 in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Up 1.4%

NASDAQ:CME opened at $271.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $97.64 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $250.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.97. 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.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.CME Group’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.96 EPS. Sell-side 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $249.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised CME Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $316.00 to $323.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target 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. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $291.81.

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.