MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.76

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74.

MarketAxess has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.9% annually over the last three years. MarketAxess has a payout ratio of 32.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $8.05 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 36.8%.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.1 %

MarketAxess stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $201.44. 465,301 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 501,471. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.32, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $227.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $246.99.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. Equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $260.78.

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.