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

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th.

MarketAxess has raised its dividend 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. 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 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $274.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.91, a quick ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a market cap of $10.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.04 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $297.97. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $269.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $232.80.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 33.71%. The business’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.26 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $263.40.

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.