CME Group pays $5.80 per share special dividend in 2024
CME Group (CME) will pay a special cash dividend of $5.80 per share to shareholders in 2024. Earlier this year the derivatives marketplace provider hiked its dividend by a small 4.5% bringing the dividend track record to 14 consecutive years of increases.
The Board declared the company's 2024 annual variable dividend, amounting to $5.80 per share. The dividend is payable January 16, 2025, to shareholders of record on December 27, 2024, and totals approximately $2.1 billion. At a stock price of $246 the regular dividend yield for CME is 1.87%.
In addition, the Board authorized a share repurchase program of up to $3 billion of CME Group Class A common stock, subject to market conditions.
"The combination of a flexible share repurchase program with our existing quarterly and annual variable dividend structure allows us to efficiently return capital and addresses the different interests and preferences of our diverse shareholder base," said CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy.
Including today's announced variable dividend and the previously announced fourth-quarter 2024 dividend of $1.15 per share to be paid in December, the total yield for CME Group dividends announced during 2024 is 4.9% based on the average closing stock price in 2024 to date, an 8% increase from dividends declared in 2023. The company will have paid a total of more than $28 billion in quarterly and variable dividends since adopting the annual variable dividend structure in the beginning of 2012.
CME Group intends to continue its variable dividend structure. However, beginning in 2026, the declaration and payment of the annual variable dividend will align with the first quarter regular dividend paid in March 2026 rather than at the end of the calendar year. In 2023 CME Group hiked its dividend by 10% with a $5.25 per share special dividend.
Other companies declaring special dividends recently include American Financial Group and Park Hotels & Resorts.
CME Group enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities.The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. With a range of pre- and post-trade products and services underpinning the entire lifecycle of a trade, CME Group also offers optimization and reconciliation services through TriOptima, and trade processing services through Traiana.
