MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX – Get Free Report) and Trinity Capital (NASDAQ:TRIN – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and earnings.
Dividends
MarketAxess pays an annual dividend of $3.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Trinity Capital pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.5%. MarketAxess pays out 38.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Trinity Capital pays out 116.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. MarketAxess has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Trinity Capital has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for MarketAxess and Trinity Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| MarketAxess | 0 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2.08 |
| Trinity Capital | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2.67 |
MarketAxess presently has a consensus target price of $159.44, suggesting a potential downside of 3.17%. Trinity Capital has a consensus target price of $16.60, suggesting a potential upside of 1.54%. Given Trinity Capital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Trinity Capital is more favorable than MarketAxess.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares MarketAxess and Trinity Capital”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| MarketAxess | $846.27 million | 6.85 | $246.63 million | $8.17 | 20.16 |
| Trinity Capital | $216.31 million | 7.16 | $135.60 million | $1.75 | 9.34 |
MarketAxess has higher revenue and earnings than Trinity Capital. Trinity Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MarketAxess, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
99.0% of MarketAxess shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.6% of Trinity Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of MarketAxess shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of Trinity Capital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares MarketAxess and Trinity Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| MarketAxess | 35.22% | 22.48% | 12.84% |
| Trinity Capital | 43.45% | 14.94% | 6.69% |
Volatility & Risk
MarketAxess has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Trinity Capital has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
MarketAxess beats Trinity Capital on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
About MarketAxess
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. 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 trading-related products and services, including composite+ pricing and other market data products to assist clients with trading decisions; auto-execution and other execution services for clients requiring specialized workflow solutions; connectivity solutions that facilitate straight-through processing; and technology services to optimize trading environments. In addition, the company offers various pre-and post-trade services, such as trade matching, trade publication, regulatory transaction reporting, and market and reference data across a range of fixed-income and other products. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
About Trinity Capital
Trinity Capital Inc. is a business development company. It is a venture capital firm specializing in venture debt to growth stage companies looking for loans and/or equipment financing. Trinity Capital Inc. was founded in 2019 is based in Phoenix, Arizona with additional offices in the United States.
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