Thornburg Investment Management Inc. Sells 13,007 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. decreased its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,132,435 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 13,007 shares during the quarter. CME Group accounts for about 2.4% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.31% of CME Group worth $250,076,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $464,000. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC raised its position in shares of CME Group by 29.4% in the second quarter. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC now owns 27,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,167,000 after buying an additional 6,346 shares in the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board boosted 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 valued at $3,961,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 30.4% in 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 buying an additional 167,126 shares during the period. Finally, Mufg Securities Americas Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 9.4% in the second quarter. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. now owns 10,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,410,000 after buying an additional 936 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on CME shares. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Barclays cut their target price on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings cut CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of CME opened at $285.80 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $253.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $279.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The company 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 issued its earnings results 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.96 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. The trade was a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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.