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

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 8th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid 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 1.77%.

CME Group has increased its dividend by an average of 42.4% per year over the last three years. CME Group has a payout ratio of 43.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Down 1.0 %

CME stock opened at $282.11 on Friday. CME Group has a one year low of $190.70 and a one year high of $286.48. The firm has a market cap of $101.66 billion, a PE ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $263.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.14. 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) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.50 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 10.49 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CME has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on CME Group from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of CME Group from $279.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on CME Group from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Raymond James upgraded shares of CME Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $287.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of CME Group from $200.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $256.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Julie Winkler sold 11,592 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.17, for a total value of $2,888,378.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 21,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,453,085.45. This trade represents a 34.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Dennis Suskind sold 1,000 shares of CME Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.28, for a total transaction of $271,280.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $790,781.20. The trade was a 25.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 34,726 shares of company stock worth $8,975,813. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CME Group Company Profile

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.