Oak Harvest Investment Services Grows Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Oak Harvest Investment Services grew its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 25,702 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 314 shares during the quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services’ holdings in CME Group were worth $7,084,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CME. Webster Bank N. A. boosted its position in CME Group by 206.9% during the second quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 89 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in CME Group by 84.3% in the second quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 94 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Ransom Advisory Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 59.2% in the 2nd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 113 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CME Group by 105.0% in the 2nd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 123 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 11,896 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.47, for a total value of $3,229,407.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 17,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,734,436.80. The trade was a 40.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William R. Shepard purchased 262 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $265.19 per share, with a total value of $69,479.78. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 258,459 shares in the company, valued at $68,540,742.21. This trade represents a 0.10% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 14,043 shares of company stock valued at $3,791,486 in the last quarter. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on CME Group from $252.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on CME Group from $283.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on CME Group from $285.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $287.06.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $283.54 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $266.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $272.73. The stock has a market cap of $102.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.47, a PEG ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $222.56 and a 12 month high of $290.79.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.63 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 58.84% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.68 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 48.45%.

About CME Group

CME Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates contract markets for the trading of futures and options on futures contracts worldwide. It offers futures and options products based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and metals, as well as fixed income and foreign currency trading services.