Brookstone Capital Management Takes Position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME)

Brookstone Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME – Get Rating) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 21,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,846,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CME. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in CME Group by 4.6% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 360,268 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $63,814,000 after buying an additional 15,818 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in CME Group by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 4,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $851,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in CME Group by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 334,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $59,192,000 after purchasing an additional 39,500 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co grew its stake in CME Group by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 6,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,371,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the period. Finally, Keebeck Alpha LP grew its stake in CME Group by 28.2% in the 3rd quarter. Keebeck Alpha LP now owns 2,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $363,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CME. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on CME Group from $218.00 to $213.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. StockNews.com began coverage on CME Group in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and issued a $161.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on CME Group from $196.00 to $201.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on CME Group from $214.29 to $210.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $219.83.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME opened at $185.98 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $180.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $178.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. CME Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $166.54 and a 52-week high of $251.99.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.21 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 10.43% and a net margin of 53.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.66 EPS. Research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 8.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 9th. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is 59.54%.

About CME Group

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CME Group, Inc operates a derivatives marketplace, which offers a range of futures and options products for risk management. Its exchanges offer a range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange (FX), energy, agricultural commodities and metals.