MarketAxess Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 31, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Stephen Davidson - Head of Investor Relations

Chris Concannon - Chief Executive Officer

Richard Schiffman - Global Head of Trading Solutions

Conference Call Participants

Christopher Allen - Citigroup

Alex Kramm - UBS

Daniel Fannon - Jefferies

Benjamin Budish - Barclays Capital

Jeff Schmitt - William Blair

Simon Clinch - Redburn Atlantic

Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs

Brian Bedell - Deutsche Bank

Patrick Moley - Piper Sandler

Kyle Voigt - KBW

Michael Cyprys - Morgan Stanley

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MarketAxess Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded on January 31, 2024.

I would now like to turn the call over to Steve Davidson, Head of Investor Relations at MarketAxess. Please go ahead, sir.

Stephen Davidson

Good morning and welcome to the MarketAxess fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. For the call, Chris Concannon, Chief Executive Officer, will provide you with a strategic update on the company. Rich Schiffman, Global Head of Trading Solutions, will update you on how we executed this quarter and then I will review the financial results for the quarter.

Before I turn the call over to Chris Concannon, let me remind you that today's call may include forward-looking statements. These statements represent the company's belief regarding future events that, by their nature, are uncertain. The company's actual results and financial condition may differ materially from what is indicated in those forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and factors that could affect the company's future results, please see the description of risk factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. I would also direct you to read the forward-looking statement disclaimer in our quarterly earnings release which was issued earlier this morning and is now available on our website.

Now let me turn the call over to Chris Concannon.

Chris Concannon

Good morning and thank you for joining us to review our fourth quarter and full year results. Our underlying revenue growth trends improved during the fourth quarter as we continue to execute our growth strategy. We delivered 11% revenue growth, including the benefit of our Pragma acquisition. Earnings per share was $1.84, an increase of 16%. U.S. high-grade transaction revenue increased 14%. Emerging markets increased 8% and Euro bond increased by 7%. With these improved results in the quarter, we delivered our 15th straight year of record annual revenue.