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

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.74 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st.

MarketAxess has raised its dividend by an average of 6.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. MarketAxess has a dividend payout ratio of 36.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $8.14 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 36.4%.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $202.21 on Thursday. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $198.01 and a 12-month high of $303.85. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $213.04 and a 200-day moving average of $234.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.07. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 34.29%. The firm had revenue of $210.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Bank of America began coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $199.00 price objective for the company. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective 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. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $250.00 to $237.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $236.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $249.73.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total transaction of $442,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 70,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,508,555.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.