• 12% Increase in Total Revenue to Record $233 Million Driven by 20% Growth in Revenue Outside U.S. Credit Products
• Strong Results Reflect Heightened Demand for Our Differentiated Liquidity by Our Global Client Network
• 35% Increase in Block Trading ADV With Record U.S. High-Grade, U.S. High-Yield, EM and Eurobonds Block ADV
• 51% Increase in Portfolio Trading ADV to Record $1.9 Billion with Record U.S. Credit and EM ADV
• EPS of $2.20; $2.25 Excluding Notable Items¹

MarketAxess Holdings Inc., the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026.

Chris Concannon, CEO of MarketAxess, commented:

“We delivered record levels of trading volume, commission revenue and services revenue, driven by increased volatility and heightened demand for our differentiated liquidity from our global client network. Our strong results were broad-based and included 20% growth in revenue outside of U.S. credit, including record levels of commission revenue in emerging markets and eurobonds. Our new initiatives are also continuing to gain traction across our three strategic channels with record levels of ADV across block trading, portfolio trading and dealer-initiated activity.

Our MarketAxess advantage continued to strengthen in the first quarter by expanding our global network, deepening our differentiated liquidity and widening the competitive moat of our proprietary data and analytics. Our accelerating use of AI will help us deliver new trading and unique data solutions to our clients.”

1Q26 select financial and operational highlights*

• Record total revenues of $233.4 million increased 12%, and included an increase of approximately $3.4 million from the impact of foreign currency fluctuations.

  — 12% growth in total commission revenue to record$203 million driven by record total credit (+9%) and record total rates (+29%) commission revenue.

  — 10% growth in services revenue ² to record$30 million.

  — 20% growth in revenue outside U.S. credit, including 21% growth in combined emerging markets (record) and eurobonds (record) variable transaction revenue, reflecting the strong contribution from our international products.

• Strong progress with our new initiatives across our three strategic channels:

  — Client-Initiated Channel – 35% increase in block trading average daily volume (“ADV”) to a record $6.6 billion, including record U.S. credit (+27%), record emerging markets (+47%) and record eurobonds (+45%).

  — Portfolio Trading Channel – 51% increase in total portfolio trading ADV to a record $1.9 billion with record U.S. high-grade (+36%), record U.S. high-yield (+78%) and record emerging markets (+69%) portfolio trading ADV.

  — Dealer-Initiated Channel – 3% increase in dealer-initiated ADV to a record$1.9 billion, including 168% increase in Mid-X ADV to record levels.

• Total expenses of $132.5 million increased 10%, and included an increase of approximately $2.2 million from the impact of foreign currency fluctuations. Total expenses, excluding notable items, ¹ of $130.3million increased 8%.
• Operating margin of 43.2%, representing an increase of approximately 80 basis points; Operating margin, excluding notable items, ¹ of 44.2%, representing an increase of approximately 180 basis points.
• Diluted earnings-per-share (“EPS”) of $2.20 on net income of $78.1million, compared to $0.40 and $15.1 million in the prior year, respectively; EPS of $2.25 on net income of $79.7 million, each excluding notable items, ¹ increased 20% and 14%, respectively.
• Completed $300 million accelerated stock repurchase (“ASR”) agreement, which was the main driver of an approximately 6% reduction in share count compared to the prior year, enhancing EPS growth.

*All comparisons versus 1Q25

The full results can be read here 

Source: MarketAxess