CME Group Inc. (CME) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 12th

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a dividend of 1.25 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, December 30th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th.

CME Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years. CME Group has a payout ratio of 43.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 opened at $276.50 on Friday. CME Group has a 12 month low of $222.56 and a 12 month high of $290.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.71 billion, a PE ratio of 26.79, a P/E/G ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.38. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $265.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $272.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.05. CME Group had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 58.84%.The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CME Group will post 10.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $262.00 to $263.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Barclays cut their target price on shares of CME Group from $298.00 to $280.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CME Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on CME Group from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised CME Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $266.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CME Group presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $286.06.

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.