MarketAxess (MKTX) Competitors

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) and Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, media sentiment, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, community ranking, institutional ownership and profitability.

Is MKTX or SF more profitable?

MarketAxess has a net margin of 33.83% compared to Stifel Financial's net margin of 11.34%. MarketAxess' return on equity of 20.82% beat Stifel Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MarketAxess	33.83%	20.82%	14.17%
Stifel Financial	11.34%	12.40%	1.51%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer MKTX or SF?

MarketAxess received 65 more outperform votes than Stifel Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.56% of users gave Stifel Financial an outperform vote while only 46.59% of users gave MarketAxess an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
MarketAxess	Outperform Votes 335 46.59%	Underperform Votes 384 53.41%
Stifel Financial	Outperform Votes 270 55.56%	Underperform Votes 216 44.44%

Which has more volatility and risk, MKTX or SF?

MarketAxess has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stifel Financial has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is MKTX or SF a better dividend stock?

MarketAxess pays an annual dividend of $2.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Stifel Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. MarketAxess pays out 43.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Stifel Financial pays out 38.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Stifel Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend MKTX or SF?

MarketAxess presently has a consensus price target of $249.73, indicating a potential upside of 24.87%. Stifel Financial has a consensus price target of $84.50, indicating a potential upside of 7.04%. Given MarketAxess' higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe MarketAxess is more favorable than Stifel Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MarketAxess	2 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.09
Stifel Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, MKTX or SF?

Stifel Financial has higher revenue and earnings than MarketAxess. Stifel Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MarketAxess, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MarketAxess	$752.55M	10.09	$258.05M	$6.81	29.43
Stifel Financial	$4.35B	1.86	$522.54M	$4.40	17.94

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of MKTX or SF?

99.0% of MarketAxess shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.0% of Stifel Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of MarketAxess shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Stifel Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer MKTX or SF?

In the previous week, MarketAxess had 11 more articles in the media than Stifel Financial. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for MarketAxess and 5 mentions for Stifel Financial. Stifel Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.19 beat MarketAxess' score of 0.94 indicating that Stifel Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MarketAxess	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Stifel Financial	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

MarketAxess beats Stifel Financial on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.