Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super Makes New $24.05 Million Investment in CME Group Inc. $CME

Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super bought a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 81,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $24,051,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 2.1% in the first quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 66,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,582,000 after buying an additional 1,393 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 33,887 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,009,000 after acquiring an additional 2,519 shares during the period. Harmony Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 17,486 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,165,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH now owns 31,710 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,366,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of CME Group by 6.8% in the first quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 50,732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,984,000 after purchasing an additional 3,252 shares during the period. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Terrence A. Duffy sold 35,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.51, for a total transaction of $10,447,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,606,111.30. The trade was a 38.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on CME shares. Barclays dropped their price target on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $266.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.12.

CME Group Price Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $246.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.31 and a twelve month high of $329.16. The company has a market cap of $89.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $259.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $282.38.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.25. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 63.19%.The business had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 12.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.37%.

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.