MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Announces $0.78 Quarterly Dividend

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be given a dividend of 0.78 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 20th.

MarketAxess has increased its dividend by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. MarketAxess has a dividend payout ratio of 36.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $8.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.9%.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $152.66 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.80, a current ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.37 billion, a PE ratio of 22.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $172.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $171.94. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $146.00 and a 12-month high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.87 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in MarketAxess by 169.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $463,655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607,009 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its position in MarketAxess by 42.4% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $575,546,000 after acquiring an additional 944,830 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,373,000 after acquiring an additional 932,687 shares during the period. North Reef Capital Management LP increased its position in MarketAxess by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $291,691,000 after acquiring an additional 697,972 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $91,324,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.