MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (MKTX) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 19th

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of 0.76 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74.

MarketAxess has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.9% per year over the last three years. MarketAxess has a payout ratio of 35.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $9.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.4%.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $193.49 on Monday. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $188.88 and a 12 month high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.29 billion, a PE ratio of 26.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $220.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $246.18.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.