MarketAxess Holdings Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.74 (NASDAQ:MKTX)

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 17th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of 0.74 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th.

MarketAxess has increased 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 35.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $8.18 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 36.2%.

MarketAxess Trading Up 2.2 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $267.33 on Tuesday. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $297.97. The stock has a market cap of $10.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.22, a P/E/G ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $272.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $235.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MKTX shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In related news, 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 sale, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This trade represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate 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.