MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.07 EPS

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.29% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The firm had revenue of $210.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.96 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis.

MarketAxess Stock Up 1.7 %

MarketAxess stock traded up $3.52 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $205.73. The company had a trading volume of 71,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 419,574. The stock has a market cap of $7.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.98. MarketAxess has a 1 year low of $198.01 and a 1 year high of $303.85. The business has a fifty day moving average of $213.04 and a 200 day moving average of $234.73.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.44%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total transaction of $442,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 70,092 shares in the company, valued at $15,508,555.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $278.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $249.73.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.