Boston Common Asset Management LLC Purchases 3,211 Shares of CME Group Inc. $CME

Boston Common Asset Management LLC grew its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 6.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 52,809 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,211 shares during the quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC’s holdings in CME Group were worth $14,268,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in CME Group by 1.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,176,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,695,313,000 after acquiring an additional 532,549 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CME Group by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,178,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,524,271,000 after purchasing an additional 319,899 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CME Group during the second quarter worth approximately $1,571,447,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in CME Group by 2.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,682,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,289,910,000 after purchasing an additional 92,925 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in CME Group by 6.6% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,833,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,056,476,000 after purchasing an additional 238,522 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of CME Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of CME Group from $310.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $296.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.82.

CME Group Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of CME Group stock opened at $279.07 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $100.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.27. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $274.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $271.90. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $230.80 and a 12-month high of $290.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a net margin of 58.84% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th were given a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 12th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $278.37 per share, for a total transaction of $69,870.87. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 258,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $72,017,102.70. The trade was a 0.10% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.55, for a total value of $6,738,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,737,468.20. This trade represents a 27.53% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

About CME Group

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.