CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.25

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 8th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be given a dividend of 1.25 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%.

CME Group has increased its dividend by an average of 42.4% annually over the last three years. CME Group has a dividend payout ratio of 43.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect CME Group to earn $10.99 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.5%.

CME Group Price Performance

CME Group stock opened at $284.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.64 billion, a PE ratio of 29.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45. CME Group has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $287.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $263.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $244.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.19. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 57.52%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $269.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of CME Group from $223.00 to $211.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Raymond James raised CME Group from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $287.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Bank of America lifted their target price on CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised CME Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $256.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Derek Sammann sold 4,650 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.61, for a total value of $1,304,836.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,339,164.96. The trade was a 35.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 34,726 shares of company stock worth $8,975,813. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About CME Group

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.

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