Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC Buys Shares of 31,062 CME Group Inc. $CME

Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 31,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,860,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CME. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth $6,749,965,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $867,313,000. Alphabet Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $769,376,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $629,771,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director William R. Shepard bought 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $230.57 per share, for a total transaction of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on CME shares. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $286.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $329.00 to $295.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

CME opened at $279.17 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $279.47. CME Group Inc. has a one year low of $218.31 and a one year high of $329.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a net margin of 63.30% and a return on equity of 15.60%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.96 earnings per share. Analysts predict that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 44.11%.

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.