Van ECK Associates Corp Has $17.64 Million Position in CME Group Inc. $CME

Van ECK Associates Corp cut its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 79,865 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,218 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in CME Group were worth $17,637,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new position in CME Group during the second quarter worth about $612,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new stake in CME Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $53,671,000. FLC Capital Advisors acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,122,000. Haverford Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of CME Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $13,818,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CME Group by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 352,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,376,000 after purchasing an additional 22,692 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Bank of America increased their price target on CME Group from $226.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. TD Cowen cut their target price on CME Group from $323.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised CME Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CME Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $288.56.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William R. Shepard purchased 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $230.57 per share, with a total value of $74,935.25. Following the acquisition, the director owned 260,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,050,111.94. This trade represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME opened at $285.80 on Monday. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.31 and a 52-week high of $329.16. The firm has a market cap of $102.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.23. The business’s fifty day moving average is $253.80 and its 200-day moving average is $278.93.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. CME Group had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 63.30%.The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.96 earnings per share. CME Group’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 12.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.