MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Cut to Hold at Argus

Argus lowered shares of MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $200.40.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $174.66 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $176.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.68. MarketAxess has a 52-week low of $156.17 and a 52-week high of $232.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a current ratio of 2.80. The company has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of 26.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $214.06 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.73 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.85%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Stance Capital LLC purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the third quarter worth about $42,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.