30,603 Shares in CME Group Inc. $CME Bought by EP Wealth Advisors LLC

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 30,603 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,758,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new position in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $612,000. FLC Capital Advisors bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter worth $2,122,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,376,000 after purchasing an additional 22,692 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $5,797,000 after purchasing an additional 12,105 shares during the period. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 999,530 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $272,952,000 after purchasing an additional 10,602 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

CME stock opened at $274.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $251.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.65. The company has a market capitalization of $98.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $218.31 and a 1-year high of $329.16.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of 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 lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $288.56.

Insider Activity

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.