MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Issues Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.07 EPS

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced its earnings results on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $210.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.99 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 34.29%. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.96 earnings per share.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX traded down $1.94 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $198.95. The company had a trading volume of 130,634 shares, compared to its average volume of 420,407. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $213.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $234.96. The stock has a market cap of $7.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.42, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.98. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $198.01 and a 12 month high of $303.85.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 43.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on MKTX shares. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $199.00 price objective for the company. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $250.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total transaction of $442,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 70,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,508,555.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.