CHICAGO, Dec. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) today declared its annual variable dividend, amounting to $3.50 per share.  The dividend is payable January 15, 2018, to shareholders of record on December 28, 2017.  When CME Group adopted its annual variable dividend structure in February 2012, the intention was to determine the excess cash available at the end of each year, with the level to increase or decrease from year to year based on operating results, potential investment activity and other forms of capital return. 

The annual variable dividend of $3.50 per share to be paid in January 2018 totals approximately $1.2 billion.  Including today's announced variable dividend and the previously announced fourth-quarter 2017 dividend of $0.66 per share to be paid in December, the total dividend yield for dividends announced during 2017 is 4.9 percent based on the average closing stock price in 2017 to date. The company will have paid a total of nearly $10 billion in quarterly and variable dividends since adopting the annual variable dividend structure in the beginning of 2012. 

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. Through its exchanges, CME Group offers the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.  CME Group provides electronic trading globally on its CME Globex platform. The company also offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives through CME Clearing. CME Group's products and services ensure that businesses around the world can effectively manage risk and achieve growth.

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.  Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE CME Group