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

Key Points

• CME Group Inc. announced a quarterly dividend of $1.25 per share, set to be paid to shareholders on September 25th, following the record date of September 9th.
• The company's dividend payout ratio stands at 43.1%, indicating strong earnings coverage for its annual dividend of $5.00.
• Analysts have varied opinions on CME Group's stock, with four sell ratings, nine hold ratings, and four buy ratings, placing the average target price at $261.93.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 7th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of 1.25 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, September 25th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%.

CME Group has a dividend payout ratio of 43.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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

NASDAQ:CME traded up $1.26 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $282.21. 1,488,447 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,050,219. The firm has a market cap of $101.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.99 and a beta of 0.44. CME Group has a 52 week low of $203.77 and a 52 week high of $290.79. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $275.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $265.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.60% and a net margin of 58.48%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.56 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CME has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays set a $298.00 target price on shares of CME Group and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $300.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $305.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on CME Group from $301.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $261.93.

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.