MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.06 EPS

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) posted its earnings results on Friday. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.00 EPS.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.1%

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $162.53 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $108.75 and a 52 week high of $195.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $123.51 and a 200-day moving average of $151.44.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake 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 valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 698.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 377 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth approximately $76,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, June 12th. William Blair lowered MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $160.18.

About MarketAxess

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.