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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 $0.66per 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.
