Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Lowers Stock Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. lowered its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 78.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 47,427 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 169,863 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $13,205,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. L2 Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. L2 Asset Management LLC now owns 1,860 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $508,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Brooklands Fund Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 56.4% in the fourth quarter. Brooklands Fund Management Ltd now owns 860 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. 71 West Capital Partners purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $263,000. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,146,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $313,097,000 after purchasing an additional 35,357 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 124.8% in the fourth quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 317 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of CME Group in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $305.00 target price for the company. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of CME Group from $340.00 to $323.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. UBS Group restated an “overweight” rating on shares of CME Group in a research report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of CME Group from $275.00 to $267.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.71.

CME Group Price Performance

CME opened at $266.08 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $96.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.70, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $284.01 and a 200 day moving average of $288.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $244.56 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.19% and a return on equity of 15.42%. The company’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.37%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Hilda Harris Piell sold 5,753 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.63, for a total value of $1,752,536.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 27,702 shares in the company, valued at $8,438,860.26. This trade represents a 17.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.