MarketAxess (MKTX) Competitors

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) and MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, valuation, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends and institutional ownership.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of SF or MKTX?

82.0% of Stifel Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.0% of MarketAxess shares are held by institutional investors. 4.6% of Stifel Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of MarketAxess shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is SF or MKTX more profitable?

MarketAxess has a net margin of 33.83% compared to MarketAxess' net margin of 11.34%. Stifel Financial's return on equity of 20.82% beat MarketAxess' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stifel Financial	11.34%	12.40%	1.51%
MarketAxess	33.83%	20.82%	14.17%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, SF or MKTX?

Stifel Financial has higher revenue and earnings than MarketAxess. Stifel Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MarketAxess, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stifel Financial	$4.35B	1.87	$522.54M	$4.40	17.96
MarketAxess	$752.55M	9.96	$258.05M	$6.81	29.03

Which has more risk and volatility, SF or MKTX?

Stifel Financial has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MarketAxess has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to SF or MKTX?

In the previous week, MarketAxess had 10 more articles in the media than Stifel Financial. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for MarketAxess and 7 mentions for Stifel Financial. Stifel Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.78 beat MarketAxess' score of 0.39 indicating that MarketAxess is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Stifel Financial	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
MarketAxess	5 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is SF or MKTX a better dividend stock?

Stifel Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. MarketAxess pays an annual dividend of $2.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Stifel Financial pays out 38.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MarketAxess pays out 43.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Stifel Financial has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and MarketAxess has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Stifel Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts rate SF or MKTX?

Stifel Financial presently has a consensus price target of $84.50, suggesting a potential upside of 6.91%. MarketAxess has a consensus price target of $249.73, suggesting a potential upside of 26.33%. Given Stifel Financial's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe MarketAxess is more favorable than Stifel Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stifel Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
MarketAxess	2 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.09

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SF or MKTX?

MarketAxess received 65 more outperform votes than Stifel Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.56% of users gave Stifel Financial an outperform vote while only 46.59% of users gave MarketAxess an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Stifel Financial	Outperform Votes 270 55.56%	Underperform Votes 216 44.44%
MarketAxess	Outperform Votes 335 46.59%	Underperform Votes 384 53.41%

Summary

MarketAxess beats Stifel Financial on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.