Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Makes New Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA bought a new position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 60,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $16,271,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 11.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after buying an additional 1,037 shares in the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 25.3% during the 2nd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc boosted its position in CME Group by 34.7% during the 2nd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 1,631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $450,000 after acquiring an additional 420 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,265,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 944.6% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 93,065 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,647,000 after acquiring an additional 84,156 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Price Performance

CME stock opened at $306.34 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $293.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $278.26. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $248.53 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $110.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.02. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.65% and a net margin of 62.45%.The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.52 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.80%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler raised their target price on CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on CME Group from $319.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on CME Group from $300.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Bank of America raised their price objective on CME Group from $201.00 to $209.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $302.71.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, Director Bryan T. Durkin sold 4,200 shares of the company’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 transaction, the director owned 43,007 shares in the company, valued at $13,317,117.55. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 251 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $278.37 per share, for a total transaction of $69,870.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 258,710 shares in the company, valued at $72,017,102.70. The trade was a 0.10% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,248 shares of company stock valued at $8,355,450. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key CME Group News

Here are the key news stories impacting CME Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: CME is reporting record trading activity and demand: the energy complex set an all?time single?day volume record (8.3M contracts) and the firm touted record monthly futures volume, evidence of strong client flow and fee generation that supports revenues and long?term earnings. Energy Volume Record
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion: CME launched new South Asia crude palm oil futures and already recorded initial block trades, showing uptake for new contracts and incremental revenue opportunities from expanded product suites. Palm Oil Futures Launch
• Positive Sentiment: Infrastructure partnership: Tickblaze announced integration of CME futures market data into its platform, which can broaden distribution of CME data products to prop trading shops and institutional users. This supports data?services revenue potential. Tickblaze Partnership
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually large options activity: a huge spike in call purchases was reported (very large notional / volume vs typical), which could signal speculative bullish positioning but may also be one?day noise; treat as mixed short?term signal.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short?interest data in recent feeds shows zero/NaN entries and 0 days?to?cover — this appears to be a reporting anomaly and should not be read as a material change in short demand.
• Negative Sentiment: Ex?dividend mechanical pressure: the board declared a large combined payout (~$7.45 per share), and the stock adjusted lower on the ex?dividend date as expected; that mechanical drop is the main proximate cause of today’s decline. Ex?Dividend Analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Sell pressure from sentiment and flows: recent profit?taking after strong run, at least one analyst downgrade and large institutional moves (notably big reductions by some asset managers) and reported insider sales have likely added incremental selling pressure. Analyst / Institutional / Insider Notes

CME Group 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.