MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.06, Briefing.com reports. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.00 earnings per share.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of MKTX traded down $0.09 during trading on Friday, reaching $162.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 805,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,300,674. The company has a market cap of $5.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a fifty day moving average of $123.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.44. MarketAxess has a twelve month low of $108.75 and a twelve month high of $195.96.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 698.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at about $76,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. William Blair cut shares of MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 10th. Bank of America raised shares of MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $160.18.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.