CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Bought by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Free Report) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,095,106 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 29,662 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.30% of CME Group worth $254,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Ltd. CA boosted its holdings in CME Group by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA now owns 54,479 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $12,652,000 after buying an additional 6,953 shares in the last quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. increased its position in CME Group by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. now owns 12,299 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,856,000 after buying an additional 1,395 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Sarl raised its holdings in shares of CME Group by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 82,015 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $19,046,000 after acquiring an additional 13,095 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 521,568 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $121,036,000 after acquiring an additional 7,531 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of CME Group by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 668,431 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $155,230,000 after acquiring an additional 94,391 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $269.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $269.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on CME Group from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Barclays raised their price objective on CME Group from $279.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on CME Group from $223.00 to $211.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $252.44.

CME Group Stock Up 1.2 %

CME stock traded up $3.03 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $266.30. 1,709,100 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,154,016. The company has a market capitalization of $95.96 billion, a PE ratio of 27.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.43. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $258.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $241.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. CME Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.70 and a twelve month high of $273.42.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is a positive change from CME Group's previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. CME Group's dividend payout ratio is currently 51.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CME Group news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares in the company, valued at $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total value of $2,888,378.64. Following the sale, the insider now owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at $5,453,085.45. The trade was a 34.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496 over the last ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CME Group Company 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.