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

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.74 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. 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 every year for the last 16 years. MarketAxess has a payout ratio of 36.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX traded up $1.32 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $202.21. 396,815 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 423,558. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $198.01 and a 12 month high of $303.85. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $213.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $234.73. The company has a market cap of $7.60 billion, a PE ratio of 29.52, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $210.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.99 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 34.29%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $263.00 to $225.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $278.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $236.00 to $225.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $249.73.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total value of $442,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 70,092 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,508,555.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 2.66% of the company's stock.

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.