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Here's Why You Should Hold MarketAxess (MKTX) in Your Portfolio

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MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (MKTX - Free Report) is being driven by sustained top-line growth, growing trading volume, a solid Open Trading platform, acquisitions and partnerships as well as sufficient cash-generating abilities.  

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

MarketAxess carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), at present.

The stock has gained 2.6% in a year against the industry’s 0.4% decline. The Finance sector and the S&P 500 composite index rallied 10.4% and 19.2%, respectively, in the same time frame.

Zacks Investment Research
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Robust Growth Prospects

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MarketAxess’ 2023 earnings is pegged at $7.54 per share, indicating a 13% increase from the year-ago reported figure. The same for revenues is $797.8 million, implying 11.1% growth from the prior-year number.

The consensus estimate for 2024 earnings is pegged at $8.57 per share, suggesting 13.6% growth from the year-ago estimate. The same for revenues is $897.4 million, which indicates a rise of 12.5% from the prior-year estimate.

Impressive Earnings Surprise History

MKTX’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 4.28%.

Solid Return on Equity

The return on equity for MKTX is currently 24.6%, which is higher than the industry’s average of 10.8%. The figure substantiates the company’s efficiency in utilizing shareholders’ funds.

Business Tailwinds

Revenues of MarketAxess continue to benefit on the back of higher trading volumes, which in turn, drive commissions, the most significant top-line contributor. The top line has witnessed consistent growth for more than a decade, which is commendable. In the first quarter of 2023, MKTX reported an average daily volume of $38,202 million, which grew 2% year over year.  

The leading electronic platform operator benefits from accelerated market share gains across its diversified product suite comprising U.S. High Grade, U.S. High Yield, Eurobond, Emerging Markets and Municipal Bonds.

MarketAxess resorts to buyouts and collaborations for strengthening its product portfolio, delving into new markets, launching new products or services and bolstering its market reach across the fixed income markets.

In June 2023, MarketAxess entered into a tie-up with Investortools to integrate its municipal bonds within the Investortools Dealer Network, thereby paving the way for expanding the electronic trading of municipal bonds.

MarketAxess boasts well-established presence in the Open Trading marketplace, which enables price improvement for clients, mitigates risk in fixed-income markets and results in reduced transaction costs. Based on the strength of its Open Trading platform, MKTX remains optimistic about infusing greater digitization within many of its product areas that still grapple with a lower level of trading electronification.

The strong international business for MarketAxess results from growing trading volume trends observed across Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions over the past five years. It continues to make investments in building client relationships overseas, which are likely to keep the revenue flow from international markets intact in the days ahead.

For pursuing uninterrupted growth-related initiatives, which are necessary to attain a competitive edge over peers, a solid financial position is necessary. MarketAxess has sound cash reserves and generated an operating cash flow of $7.5 million in the first quarter of 2023. Apart from business investments, solid cash flows enable MKTX to actively engage in share buybacks and dividend payments.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the Finance space are McGrath RentCorp (MGRC - Free Report) , Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (BIP - Free Report) and Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (EBC - Free Report) . While McGrath RentCorp sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Eastern Bankshares carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

McGrath RentCorp earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 25.35%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MGRC’s 2023 earnings suggests a rise of 0.4%, while the same for revenues suggests growth of 9.7% from the corresponding year-ago figures. The consensus mark for MGRC’s 2023 earnings has moved 2.6% north in the past 60 days.

The bottom line of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners beat estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and matched the mark once, the average surprise being 4.07%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BIP’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 13.3% from the year-ago figure. The consensus mark for BIP’s 2023 earnings has moved 2% north in the past 30 days.

Eastern Bankshares’ earnings outpaced estimates in two of the last four quarters and missed the mark twice, the average surprise being 1.77%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EBC’s 2023 earnings suggests an improvement of 1.6% from the year-ago figure. The consensus mark for EBC’s 2023 earnings has moved 0.8% north in the past 30 days.

The McGrath RentCorp stock has gained 32.2% in a year. However, shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Eastern Bankshares have declined 3.7% and 28.5%, respectively, in a year.

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