# MarketAxess Holdings (MKTX.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/MKTX

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:30:15.079Z. Financial observations: FY2004–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $164.54 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $120.46 per share, central $164.42 per share, high $192.74 per share. Buy at or below the central value $164.42 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:30:15.079Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 10.0% at the stated quote. About 10.0% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- 0 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 0

- Years with a net loss: 0

- Operating margin variation: 0.10×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 0.51×

- FY2018: 0.49×

- FY2019: 0.49×

- FY2020: 0.54×

- FY2021: 0.48×

- FY2022: 0.45×

- FY2023: 0.42×

- FY2024: 0.41×

- FY2025: 0.41×

- LTM to Jun 2026: 0.41×

### moat: fail

- Recent gross margin fell 8.0pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 49.4%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 40.7%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 8.0 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 78.1%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 70.1%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 6.9%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 38.8%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 50.4%

- FY2017: 48.5%

- FY2018: 52.0%

- FY2019: 60.5%

- FY2020: 71.0%

- FY2021: 57.0%

- FY2022: 44.4%

- FY2023: 40.3%

- FY2024: 44.8%

- FY2025: 40.7%

### economics: fail

- working capital as a share of revenue rose more than 10pp and ends positive

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.12×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $1.4B

- Net income, five-year total: $1.3B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 104.4%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 5.8 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 41.9 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 46.1%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.04×

- FY2022: 1.06×

- FY2023: 1.09×

- FY2024: 1.09×

- FY2025: 1.31×

### management: pass

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 50.4% vs 40.7%

- Per-share earnings: 3.34 to 6.85 (three-year endpoint medians)

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: -0.1%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -0.5%

- Market cap gain: $969M

- Cumulative retained earnings: $1.3B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -0.1%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -0.5%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value growth: 9.4%

- Per-share value change: $3.51

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: $3.34

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $6.85

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.82

- Average buyback yield: 1.0%

- Buyback history: 10 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: $358M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $2.2B

- ROIC, first three-year median: 50.4%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 40.7%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $3.34

- FY2017: $3.89

- FY2018: $4.57

- FY2019: $5.40

- FY2020: $7.85

- FY2021: $6.77

- FY2022: $6.65

- FY2023: $6.85

- FY2024: $7.28

- FY2025: $6.64

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -7.5%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.31×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 8.1%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 1.55×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.34×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 8.7%

- FY2017: -3.4%

- FY2018: -7.3%

- FY2019: -6.4%

- FY2020: -7.9%

- FY2021: -1.6%

- FY2022: -2.4%

- FY2023: -3.8%

- FY2024: -6.2%

- FY2025: -7.5%

## Holders

- [Matthew McLennan](https://gigainvestors.com/FE): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Arnold Van Den Berg](https://gigainvestors.com/VAN): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 60% since Dec 2021 · sales +2.8%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:10.241Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

Price needs cash profits to grow 5.4% a year for ten years

- 2025-11-07: MarketAxess Q3 Earnings Beat on Strong Emerging Markets Volumes ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/marketaxess-q3-earnings-beat-strong-175300995.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +2.8%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278021/000119312526067009/mktx-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-24.

- FY2017: $397M 

- FY2018: $436M 

- FY2019: $511M 

- FY2020: $689M 

- FY2021: $699M 

- FY2022: $718M 

- FY2023: $753M 

- FY2024: $817M 

- FY2025: $846M 

- FY2026: $870M 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 70.1%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278021/000119312526067009/mktx-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-24.

- FY2016: 85.7% 

- FY2017: 83.8% 

- FY2018: 82.1% 

- FY2019: 80.9% 

- FY2020: 80.6% 

- FY2021: 75.7% 

- FY2022: 72.3% 

- FY2023: 69.6% 

- FY2024: 70.2% 

- FY2025: 70.1% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in capital markets; annual sales are USD 846.3 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278021/000119312526067009/mktx-20251231.htm#000119312526067009 (filed 2026-02-24); FY2025: revenue 846268000; grossProfit 593401000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); MKTX.US: MarketAxess Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer firms in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers trading technology to access liquidity on its platforms in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S. government bonds, and other fixed-income securities; and executes bond trades between and among institutional investor and broker-dealer clients in an all-to-all anonymous trading environment for corporate bonds through its Open Trading protocols. It also provides automated and algorithmic trading solutions, such as X-Pro, a trading platform to combine trading protocols with its proprietary data and pre-trade analytics; and integrated and actionable data offerings, including CP+ and Axess All, a real-time pricing engine, including Auto-X and portfolio trading. In addition, the company offers various pre-and post-trade services, such as processing, trade matching, trade publication, regulatory transaction reporting, and market and reference data across a range of fixed-income and other products. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 69.6% to 70.2% during 2023–25; it earns 49.4% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 69.6%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 70.2%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278021/000119312526067009/mktx-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-24); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 70.1%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,0.5035278717834111],[2017,0.484651031882654],[2018,0.519535845430523],[2019,0.6046830357361408],[2020,0.7098929763975391],[2021,0.569926934074143],[2022,0.44417641297090316],[2023,0.4027915350592491],[2024,0.4479007843698936],[2025,0.40701518074821413]]; median 0.49408945183303254. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Reinvests 11.3% of cash earnings; earns over 100% on new investment.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2016: growth capex 665000; upkeep 17838000; owner earnings 126172000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.005270583013663887.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2017: growth capex 2989232.871050734; upkeep 22567767.128949266; owner earnings 144795232.87105075. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.020644553082164202.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2018: growth capex 4191468.583462253; upkeep 43401531.41653775; owner earnings 152530468.58346224. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.02747954964269154.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2019: growth capex 2048000; upkeep 32652000; owner earnings 204902000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.009995022010522103.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2020: growth capex 2790000; upkeep 42838000; owner earnings 299377000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.009319353190124826.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2021: growth capex 0; upkeep 50616000; owner earnings 267517999. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 51872000; cash acquisitions 34400000; owner earnings 265506000. Growth capex plus acquisitions / owner earnings = 0.1295639269922337.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2023: growth capex 0; upkeep 52448000; cash acquisitions 78476000; owner earnings 282017000. Growth capex plus acquisitions / owner earnings = 0.27826691298751494.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); FY2024: growth capex 0; upkeep 56565000; cash acquisitions 0; owner earnings 298079000. Growth capex plus acquisitions / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278021/000119312526067009/mktx-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-24); FY2025: growth capex 0; upkeep 8204000; cash acquisitions 36515000; owner earnings 322645000. Growth capex plus acquisitions / owner earnings = 0.11317392180260039.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); Incremental return on capital 1.0441283373024284, from the economics test's unchanged annual inputs.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); Dividend observations: [[2016,38495000],[2017,48888000],[2018,62432000],[2019,76231000],[2020,90566000],[2021,99792000],[2022,105942000],[2023,109658000],[2024,112697000],[2025,115199000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278021/000119312526067009/mktx-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-24); FY2025: cash repurchases 420015000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.7% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); MKTX.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.742 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price assumes cash profits grow 5.4% yearly over ten years; actual growth was 12.7%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-24); Ten-year compound average after fade. Initial solved rate 0.06389806725477121. Price 164.54; FX 1; discount 0.1; same standard ten-year fade to terminal 0.03. FY2015 owner earnings/share 2.6355713792278874 → FY2025 8.687966179282117. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $150.76 per share

- 2016-11: $165.77 per share

- 2016-12: $146.92 per share

- 2017-01: $187.25 per share

- 2017-02: $195.23 per share

- 2017-03: $187.49 per share

- 2017-04: $192.52 per share

- 2017-05: $190.58 per share

- 2017-06: $201.10 per share

- 2017-07: $202.89 per share

- 2017-08: $192.95 per share

- 2017-09: $184.51 per share

- 2017-10: $174.00 per share

- 2017-11: $195.27 per share

- 2017-12: $201.75 per share

- 2018-01: $196.21 per share

- 2018-02: $202.40 per share

- 2018-03: $217.44 per share

- 2018-04: $198.63 per share

- 2018-05: $213.65 per share

- 2018-06: $197.86 per share

- 2018-07: $193.77 per share

- 2018-08: $189.82 per share

- 2018-09: $178.49 per share

- 2018-10: $209.67 per share

- 2018-11: $217.73 per share

- 2018-12: $211.31 per share

- 2019-01: $214.77 per share

- 2019-02: $243.88 per share

- 2019-03: $246.08 per share

- 2019-04: $278.33 per share

- 2019-05: $297.82 per share

- 2019-06: $321.42 per share

- 2019-07: $337.04 per share

- 2019-08: $397.62 per share

- 2019-09: $327.50 per share

- 2019-10: $368.59 per share

- 2019-11: $403.82 per share

- 2019-12: $379.11 per share

- 2020-01: $354.18 per share

- 2020-02: $324.33 per share

- 2020-03: $332.57 per share

- 2020-04: $455.01 per share

- 2020-05: $508.59 per share

- 2020-06: $500.92 per share

- 2020-07: $516.70 per share

- 2020-08: $485.94 per share

- 2020-09: $481.59 per share

- 2020-10: $538.85 per share

- 2020-11: $539.18 per share

- 2020-12: $570.56 per share

- 2021-01: $540.76 per share

- 2021-02: $555.94 per share

- 2021-03: $497.92 per share

- 2021-04: $488.46 per share

- 2021-05: $466.54 per share

- 2021-06: $463.59 per share

- 2021-07: $475.17 per share

- 2021-08: $475.92 per share

- 2021-09: $420.69 per share

- 2021-10: $408.67 per share

- 2021-11: $352.69 per share

- 2021-12: $411.27 per share

- 2022-01: $344.48 per share

- 2022-02: $381.43 per share

- 2022-03: $340.20 per share

- 2022-04: $263.61 per share

- 2022-05: $281.68 per share

- 2022-06: $256.01 per share

- 2022-07: $270.78 per share

- 2022-08: $248.59 per share

- 2022-09: $222.49 per share

- 2022-10: $244.04 per share

- 2022-11: $267.92 per share

- 2022-12: $278.89 per share

- 2023-01: $363.85 per share

- 2023-02: $341.45 per share

- 2023-03: $391.29 per share

- 2023-04: $318.37 per share

- 2023-05: $272.41 per share

- 2023-06: $261.42 per share

- 2023-07: $269.22 per share

- 2023-08: $240.93 per share

- 2023-09: $213.64 per share

- 2023-10: $213.75 per share

- 2023-11: $240.12 per share

- 2023-12: $292.85 per share

- 2024-01: $225.51 per share

- 2024-02: $213.41 per share

- 2024-03: $219.25 per share

- 2024-04: $200.09 per share

- 2024-05: $198.93 per share

- 2024-06: $200.53 per share

- 2024-07: $223.53 per share

- 2024-08: $242.39 per share

- 2024-09: $256.20 per share

- 2024-10: $289.42 per share

- 2024-11: $258.69 per share

- 2024-12: $226.04 per share

- 2025-01: $220.63 per share

- 2025-02: $192.79 per share

- 2025-03: $216.35 per share

- 2025-04: $221.59 per share

- 2025-05: $216.41 per share

- 2025-06: $223.34 per share

- 2025-07: $205.50 per share

- 2025-08: $183.84 per share

- 2025-09: $174.25 per share

- 2025-10: $160.06 per share

- 2025-11: $163.89 per share

- 2025-12: $181.25 per share

- 2026-01: $169.23 per share

- 2026-02: $192.00 per share

- 2026-03: $164.98 per share

- 2026-04: $157.19 per share

- 2026-05: $130.04 per share

- 2026-06: $113.49 per share

- 2026-07: $162.30 per share

- 2026-08: $162.63 per share

- 2026-09: $163.92 per share

- 2026-10: $164.54 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2016: low $41.34 per share, central $59.02 per share, high $69.33 per share

- FY2017: low $49.66 per share, central $72.44 per share, high $85.14 per share

- FY2018: low $56.99 per share, central $83.13 per share, high $97.71 per share

- FY2019: low $68.51 per share, central $99.93 per share, high $117.46 per share

- FY2020: low $95.57 per share, central $139.41 per share, high $163.86 per share

- FY2021: low $95.46 per share, central $136.37 per share, high $160.19 per share

- FY2022: low $99.29 per share, central $141.84 per share, high $166.61 per share

- FY2023: low $103.99 per share, central $148.56 per share, high $174.51 per share

- FY2024: low $110.50 per share, central $157.86 per share, high $185.43 per share

- FY2025: low $111.08 per share, central $151.62 per share, high $177.73 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278021/000119312526067009/mktx-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-24.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.