MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Announces $0.74 Quarterly Dividend

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.74 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st.

MarketAxess has raised its dividend by an average of 6.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. MarketAxess has a dividend payout ratio of 36.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $8.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.4%.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX traded down $2.37 on Wednesday, reaching $198.52. The stock had a trading volume of 119,304 shares, compared to its average volume of 420,264. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $213.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $234.96. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $198.01 and a 12-month high of $303.85.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.07. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.29% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The business had revenue of $210.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.99 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.96 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total value of $442,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 70,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,508,555.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $263.00 to $225.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $278.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $237.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $250.73.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.