CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) to Repurchase $3.00 billion in Shares

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to purchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on CME Group from $195.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Redburn Atlantic cut CME Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $244.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Citigroup increased their price target on CME Group from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays increased their price target on CME Group from $219.00 to $231.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on CME Group in a report on Thursday, September 26th. They set a “hold” rating and a $221.00 price target on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $224.47.

CME Group Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ CME opened at $246.02 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.87, a PEG ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $227.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $212.77. CME Group has a 12 month low of $190.70 and a 12 month high of $249.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 57.34%. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.25 EPS. On average, analysts predict that CME Group will post 10.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CME Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. CME Group’s payout ratio is currently 48.37%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.92, for a total transaction of $89,168.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 25,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,587,935.64. This represents a 1.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Lynne Fitzpatrick sold 754 shares of the stock in a transaction on Sunday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total value of $163,610.46. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 13,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,877,504.39. The trade was a 5.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,028 shares of company stock valued at $1,811,681 in the last ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.