MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03, Zacks reports. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $201.37 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.02. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $227.76 and a 200-day moving average of $246.99.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 40.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $160,883,880.75. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on MKTX. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $257.33.

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.