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

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.74 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%.

MarketAxess has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.3% annually 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% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $8.16 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 36.3%.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of MKTX traded down $4.15 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $275.00. 26,023 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 405,001. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $268.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $232.21. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $297.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.38 billion, a PE ratio of 40.22, a PEG ratio of 9.03 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 2.91 and a current ratio of 2.91.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.04. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.71% and a return on equity of 20.43%. The company had revenue of $197.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.07 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 7.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two investment 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.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $253.30.

MarketAxess declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.63, for a total transaction of $142,915.71. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,716,146.67. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.