Eagle Asset Management Inc. Purchases 7,960 Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 9.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 91,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,960 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $20,667,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 137.6% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,260,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $444,443,000 after buying an additional 1,309,097 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in CME Group by 577.9% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 645,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $126,872,000 after purchasing an additional 550,133 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in CME Group by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,283,196 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,038,676,000 after purchasing an additional 537,758 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 21,465.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 485,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,072,070,000 after purchasing an additional 483,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $79,692,000. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $219.00 to $231.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of CME Group from $177.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $224.47.

CME Group Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:CME opened at $229.04 on Friday. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $230.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $223.64 and a 200-day moving average of $211.07. The company has a market cap of $82.54 billion, a PE ratio of 24.08, a PEG ratio of 5.30 and a beta of 0.55.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. CME Group had a net margin of 57.34% and a return on equity of 13.39%. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.25 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CME Group Inc. will post 10.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is 48.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CME Group news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.92, for a total value of $89,168.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,067 shares in the company, valued at $5,587,935.64. The trade was a 1.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.64, for a total transaction of $1,019,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 27,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,131,291.92. The trade was a 14.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 15,621 shares of company stock valued at $3,441,063. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Profile

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.