Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Invests $42.50 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 192,455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $42,500,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC boosted its position in CME Group by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 11,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,147,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CME Group by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 895 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $244,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. NBT Bank N A NY boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 1,666 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $492,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,073 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $317,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CME shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $286.00 to $270.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CME opened at $280.94 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $253.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $279.09. 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 company has a market cap of $101.02 billion, a PE ratio of 23.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.31 and a 12 month high of $329.16.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for 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%. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.96 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current 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 $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.11%.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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.