JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) versus MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Head-To-Head Review

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares JPMorgan Chase & Co. and MarketAxess’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JPMorgan Chase & Co.	20.90%	17.18%	1.31%
MarketAxess	26.16%	20.20%	14.51%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares JPMorgan Chase & Co. and MarketAxess”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$278.91 billion	3.07	$58.47 billion	$20.19	15.60
MarketAxess	$817.10 million	7.51	$274.18 million	$5.88	28.07

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

Dividends

JPMorgan Chase & Co. pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. JPMorgan Chase & Co. pays out 29.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MarketAxess pays out 51.7% 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years and MarketAxess has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.6% of JPMorgan Chase & Co. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.0% of MarketAxess shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of JPMorgan Chase & Co. shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of MarketAxess shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MarketAxess has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for JPMorgan Chase & Co. and MarketAxess, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
JPMorgan Chase & Co.	3	9	15	0	2.44
MarketAxess	2	7	4	0	2.15

JPMorgan Chase & Co. presently has a consensus target price of $325.81, suggesting a potential upside of 3.45%. MarketAxess has a consensus target price of $205.91, suggesting a potential upside of 24.75%. Given MarketAxess’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MarketAxess is more favorable than JPMorgan Chase & Co..

Summary

JPMorgan Chase & Co. beats MarketAxess on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of financial and investment banking services. It focuses on investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking (CCB), Commercial and Investment Bank (CIB), Asset and Wealth Management (AWM), and Corporate. The CCB segment originates and services mortgage loans. The CIB segment makes markets and services clients across fixed income, foreign exchange, equities, and commodities. The AWM segment provides initial capital investments in products such as mutual funds and capital invested alongside third-party investors. The Corporate segment manages its liquidity, funding, capital, structural interest rate, and foreign exchange risks. The company was founded in 1799 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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.