CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Bought by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 29.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 279,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 64,045 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in CME Group were worth $64,807,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in CME Group by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,284,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,823,964,000 after acquiring an additional 142,692 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in CME Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $871,063,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 17.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,514,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $554,707,000 after purchasing an additional 380,071 shares during the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC lifted its stake in CME Group by 69.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 2,435,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $565,671,000 after purchasing an additional 996,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in CME Group by 70.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,427,107 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $544,157,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,119 shares during the last quarter. 87.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CME Group Stock Down 0.4 %

CME stock opened at $265.47 on Thursday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $267.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market cap of $95.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a 50 day moving average of $245.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $233.51.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.46 by $0.06. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to purchase up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.71%.

Insider Transactions at CME Group

In other CME Group news, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total transaction of $2,888,378.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 21,885 shares in the company, valued at $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 8,036 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,076 shares of company stock valued at $6,871,496 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CME. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on CME Group from $258.00 to $269.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Erste Group Bank raised CME Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. Raymond James raised CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of CME Group from $235.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $238.93.

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.