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

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.74 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th.

MarketAxess has raised its dividend payment 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 payout ratio of 36.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect MarketAxess to earn $8.16 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 36.3%.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $274.87 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $269.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $232.51. The stock has a market cap of $10.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.04 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $297.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.91, a current ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $197.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $198.07 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.71% and a return on equity of 20.43%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 7.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $253.30.

MarketAxess announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.