Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC Invests $6.86 Million in CME Group Inc. $CME

Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 31,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,860,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of CME Group by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 10,027 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,660,000 after buying an additional 1,037 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in CME Group by 103.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,018,000 after buying an additional 121,707 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CME Group by 1,325.2% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,497,000 after purchasing an additional 21,918 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC bought a new stake in CME Group in the second quarter worth $992,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in CME Group by 2.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 287,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 7,397 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the purchase, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on CME. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CME Group from $324.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $286.00 to $270.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $288.56.

CME Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CME opened at $279.17 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.38 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $251.43 and its 200 day moving average is $279.47. CME Group Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $218.31 and a fifty-two week high of $329.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.96 earnings per share. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.11%.

CME Group Profile

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.