CME Group Inc. $CME Shares Sold by Raiffeisen Bank International AG

Raiffeisen Bank International AG reduced its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 39.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,720 shares during the quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG’s holdings in CME Group were worth $1,880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth $6,749,965,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at about $867,313,000. Alphabet Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter worth about $769,376,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter worth about $629,771,000. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $289.75.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $281.29 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $258.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $278.38. CME Group Inc. has a 52 week low of $218.31 and a 52 week high of $329.16. The stock has a market cap of $101.15 billion, a PE ratio of 23.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.24.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.96 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. 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 is currently 44.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director William Shepard purchased 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 owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.