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

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th.

CME Group has raised its dividend by an average of 42.4% per year over the last three years. CME Group has a payout ratio of 43.1% meaning 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

Shares of NASDAQ:CME traded down $0.19 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $270.28. 1,943,800 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,165,852. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $264.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $246.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.40 billion, a PE ratio of 27.95, 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 $286.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.01.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of CME Group from $223.00 to $211.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $269.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of CME Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of CME Group from $269.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $256.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at CME Group

In other CME Group news, COO Suzanne Sprague sold 1,500 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.83, for a total value of $385,245.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,036 shares in the company, valued at $2,063,885.88. The trade was a 15.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Derek Sammann sold 4,650 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.61, for a total transaction of $1,304,836.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,339,164.96. This trade represents a 35.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 34,726 shares of company stock valued at $8,975,813. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

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.