Compelling Reasons to Hold on to MarketAxess Stock Right Now

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. MKTX benefits from rising commissions, acquisitions and collaborations and a robust financial position supporting expansion and shareholder returns.

MKTX’s Zacks Rank & Price Performance

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

The stock has gained 12.9% in the past month against the industry’s 4.4% decline. The Zacks Finance sector and the S&P 500 composite index fell 1.4% and 2.8%, respectively, in the same time frame.

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Robust Growth Prospects of MarketAxess

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MarketAxess’ 2025 earnings is pegged at $7.70 per share, indicating a year-over-year improvement of 5.8%. The consensus mark for revenues is pegged at $876.3 million, implying a year-over-year increase of 7.2%.

The consensus estimate for 2026 earnings is pegged at $8.63 per share, indicating an increase of 12.1% from the 2025 estimate. The consensus estimate for revenues is pegged at $969 million, implying an improvement of 10.6% from the 2025 estimate.

MKTX’s Impressive Earnings Surprise History

MKTX’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 2.93%.

Solid Return on Equity of MarketAxess

The return on equity for MKTX is 20.2%, which is higher than the industry average of 12%. This substantiates the company’s efficiency in utilizing shareholders’ funds.

MKTX’s Business Tailwinds

MarketAxess continues to benefit from rising trading volumes, a key driver of its commission-based revenues. Notably, it has delivered consistent top-line growth for more than a decade, underscoring its strong market position. In 2024, MarketAxess reported an average daily trading volume of $37.1 billion, reflecting a 19% increase year over year. 

As a leading operator of electronic trading platforms, the company has captured notable market share across its broad range of products, including U.S. High Grade, U.S. High Yield, Eurobonds, Emerging Markets and Municipal Bonds.

MarketAxess actively pursues strategic acquisitions and partnerships to enhance its offerings, tap into new markets, launch innovative products and services, and broaden its presence in the fixed-income space. Its Open Trading marketplace delivers pricing benefits to clients, lowers transaction costs and reduces market risk. The company continues to expand electronification efforts through this platform, targeting fixed-income segments that remain largely manual.

Internationally, MarketAxess serves more than 1,000 active clients across Europe, Asia and Latin America through regulated trading venues. Its ongoing investment in global client relationships is expected to drive sustained revenue growth from international markets.

Backed by a robust financial position, MarketAxess supports its expansion plans through strong liquidity and operating cash flows. Net cash generated from operations totaled $385.2 million in 2024, a 15.4% increase year over year. This financial strength enables the company to reinvest in its business while continuing share repurchases and dividend payments.

Rising Expenses: A Key Risk

MarketAxess is grappling with rising costs, which are putting pressure on its profit margins. The company has experienced a steady increase in total expenses for the past few years. In 2024, it increased 9% year over year. Continued investments in areas such as its trading platform, new trading protocols, infrastructure upgrades and workforce expansion are expected to drive further cost increases in the days ahead. For 2025, total expenses are projected to be between $505 million and $525 million.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the Finance space are Enterprise Financial Services Corp EFSC, Intercorp Financial Services Inc. IFS and First Business Financial Services, Inc. FBIZ. While Enterprise Financial sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present, Intercorp Financial and First Business Financial carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Enterprise Financial Services’ earnings surpassed estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed the mark once, the average surprise being 9.11%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EFSC’s 2025 earnings indicates a rise of 1%, while the consensus mark for revenues implies growth of 2.9% from the corresponding year-ago figures. The consensus mark for EFSC’s 2025 earnings has moved 8.1% north in the past 60 days.

The bottom line of Intercorp Financial beat estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed the mark once, the average surprise being 2.76%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IFS’ 2025 earnings implies an improvement of 39.6%, while the consensus mark for revenues indicates growth of 8.2% from the corresponding year-ago figures. The consensus mark for IFS’ 2025 earnings has moved 1% north in the past 60 days.

First Business Financial’s earnings outpaced estimates in three of the last four quarters and missed the mark once, the average surprise being 5.20%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FBIZ’s 2025 earnings indicates an improvement of 11%, while the consensus mark for revenues implies growth of 8.7% from the corresponding year-ago figures.  The consensus mark for FBIZ’s 2025 earnings has moved 0.6% north in the past 30 days.

Intercorp Financial stock has gained 2.9% in the past month. However, shares of Enterprise Financial and First Business Financial have declined 8.9% and 9.4%, respectively, in the same time frame.  

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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