Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED SHAREHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Class A Common Stock
Our Class A common stock is currently listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "CME." As of February 9, 2022, there were approximately 4,555 holders of record of our Class A common stock.
Class B Common Stock
Our Class B common stock is not listed on a national securities exchange or traded in an organized over-the-counter (OTC) market. Each class of our Class B common stock is associated with a membership in a specific division of our CME exchange. CME's rules provide exchange members with trading rights and the ability to use or lease these trading rights. Each share of our Class B common stock can be transferred only in connection with the transfer of the associated trading rights.
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Class B shares and the associated trading rights are bought and sold or leased through our membership department. Although our Class B shareholders have special voting rights, because our Class B shares have the same equitable interest in our earnings and the same dividend payments as our Class A shares, we expect that the market price of our Class B common stock, if reported separately from the associated trading rights, would be primarily determined by the value of our Class A common stock . As of February 9, 2022, there were approximately 1,550 holders of record of our Class B common stock.
Preferred Stock
In 2021, we issued 4.6 million shares of non-voting Series G preferred stock. Our preferred stock is not listed on a national securities exchange or traded in an organized OTC market. These shares are convertible to Class A common stock at a 1:1 ratio at the discretion of the holder. Our preferred stock has the same equitable interest in our earnings and the same dividend payments per share as our Class A shares on an as converted basis. As of February 9, 2022, there was one holder of record of our Series G preferred stock.
PERFORMANCE GRAPH
The graph below compares the cumulative five-year total return on CME Group Inc.'s Class A common stock relative to the cumulative total returns of the S&P 500 index and a customized peer group of five companies that include: Cboe Global Markets Inc, Deutsche Boerse Ag, Intercontinental Exchange Inc, London Stock Exchange Group Plc and Nasdaq Inc. An investment of $100 (with reinvestment of all dividends) is assumed to have been made in our Class A common stock, in the peer group and the S&P 500 index on December 31, 2016 and its relative performance is tracked through December 31, 2021.
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The stock price performance included in this graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
CME Group Inc. $ 132.33 $ 174.83 $ 191.74 $ 179.60 $ 232.56
S&P 500 121.83 116.49 153.17 181.35 233.41
Peer Group 130.43 139.35 260.67 303.11 238.76
Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities
Not applicable.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Period in 2021 Total Number
of Shares (or Units)
Purchased (1)
Average Price
Paid Per Share (or Unit) Total Number of
Shares (or Units) Purchased as
Part of Publicly
Announced
Plans or Programs Maximum Number (or Approximate Dollar Value)
of Shares (or Units) that May Yet Be Purchased Under
the Plans or Programs (in millions)
October 1 to October 31 71 $ 198.32 — $ —
November 1 to November 30 17 211.90 — —
December 1 to December 31 2,264 228.52 — —
Total 2,352 —
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(1) Shares purchased consist of an aggregate of 2,352 shares of Class A common stock surrendered to satisfy employee tax obligations upon the vesting of restricted stock.
ITEM 6. [RESERVED]
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