CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) to Issue Dividend of $5.80

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) declared a dividend on Thursday, December 5th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 5.80 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, January 16th. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This is an increase from CME Group’s previous dividend of $2.50.

CME Group has increased its dividend by an average of 9.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. CME Group has a dividend payout ratio of 55.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect CME Group to earn $10.36 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.0%.

CME Group Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ CME traded up $1.46 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $239.47. The company had a trading volume of 478,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,968,869. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $231.28 and its 200 day moving average is $215.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. CME Group has a fifty-two week low of $190.70 and a fifty-two week high of $249.02. The company has a market capitalization of $86.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.18, a P/E/G ratio of 5.41 and a beta of 0.56.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. CME Group had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 57.34%. CME Group’s quarterly revenue was up 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.25 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CME Group will post 10.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CME Group announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at CME Group

In other CME Group news, Director Martin J. Gepsman sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.92, for a total transaction of $89,168.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 25,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,587,935.64. The trade was a 1.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sunil Cutinho sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.64, for a total value of $1,019,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,131,291.92. This trade represents a 14.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,274 shares of company stock worth $1,648,071 over the last quarter. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of CME Group from $245.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on CME Group from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $235.00 price objective on shares of CME Group in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of CME Group from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of CME Group from $210.00 to $233.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $229.33.

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.