CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) Raises Dividend to $1.25 Per Share

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of 1.25 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, March 26th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%. This is a boost from CME Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.15.

CME Group has raised its dividend by an average of 42.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. CME Group has a payout ratio of 53.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect CME Group to earn $10.33 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 56.1%.

CME Group Stock Performance

Shares of CME opened at $244.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a market cap of $88.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.70, a PEG ratio of 5.37 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a 50-day moving average of $235.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $223.49. CME Group has a 12-month low of $190.70 and a 12-month high of $249.02.

CME Group declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CME has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $235.00 target price on shares of CME Group in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $260.00 to $256.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of CME Group from $227.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $245.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of CME Group from $231.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CME Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $229.27.

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.