MarketAxess Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. It offers the access to liquidity in the U.S. investment-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, and U.S. Treasuries, as well as municipal bonds, emerging market debts, Eurobonds, and other fixed income securities. The company, through its Open Trading protocols, executes bond trades between and among institutional investor and broker-dealer clients in an all-to-all anonymous trading environment for corporate bonds. It also offers trading-related products and services, including composite+ pricing and other market data products to assist clients with trading decisions; auto-execution and other execution services for clients requiring specialized workflow solutions; connectivity solutions that facilitate straight-through processing; and technology services to optimize trading environments. In addition, the company provides various pre-and post-trade services, such as trade matching, trade publication, regulatory transaction reporting, and market and reference data across a range of fixed-income and other products. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
MarketAxess Price Performance
MarketAxess stock traded down $3.74 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $265.99. 165,310 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 345,039. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $267.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $301.39. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $249.01 and a fifty-two week high of $487.79. The stock has a market cap of $10.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.69 and a beta of 0.59.
MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.07. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.77% and a return on equity of 23.55%. The company had revenue of $182.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $185.24 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. MarketAxess's quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 6.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
MarketAxess Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 2nd. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.89%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
MKTX has been the topic of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $383.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 21st. Atlantic Securities decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $340.00 to $306.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $338.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 19th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $300.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $315.00 to $300.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $327.56.
Insider Transactions at MarketAxess
In related news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 1,740 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.03, for a total value of $495,952.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,318 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,515,789.54. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.94% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.