Heartland Bank & Trust Co Acquires Shares of 3,404 CME Group Inc. $CME

Heartland Bank & Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,404 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $752,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CME. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in CME Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,749,965,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CME Group in the fourth quarter worth about $1,523,241,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth approximately $867,313,000. Alphabet Inc. bought a new position in shares of CME Group in the second quarter worth approximately $769,376,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of CME Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $629,771,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.75% of the company’s stock.

CME Group Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of CME stock opened at $274.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market cap of $98.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.23. CME Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $218.31 and a 1 year high of $329.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $251.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $279.65.

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

CME Group Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on CME shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded CME Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on CME Group from $267.00 to $245.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Erste Group Bank downgraded CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of CME Group from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $316.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $288.56.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In related news, Director William R. Shepard acquired 325 shares of CME Group 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 260,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,050,111.94. This represents a 0.12% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.