CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Shares Sold by Corebridge Financial Inc.

Corebridge Financial Inc. trimmed its holdings in CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 97,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,745 shares during the period. Corebridge Financial Inc.’s holdings in CME Group were worth $22,682,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its position in shares of CME Group by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 65,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in CME Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,243,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,952,273,000 after buying an additional 326,623 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in CME Group by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 157,769 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,639,000 after buying an additional 26,790 shares in the last quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in CME Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $309,000. Finally, Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CME Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,620,000. 87.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CME has been the topic of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on CME Group from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada increased 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. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of CME Group from $250.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup lowered shares of CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $255.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $238.93.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Howard J. Siegel sold 10,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,873 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,686,980. The trade was a 31.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total transaction of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 27,076 shares of company stock worth $6,871,496. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME stock opened at $262.94 on Tuesday. CME Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $267.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.53. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $247.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $234.65.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 research analysts anticipate that CME Group Inc. will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

CME Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. CME Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.71%.

CME Group announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.