Barclays Has Lowered Expectations for MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stock Price

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its price target reduced by equities researchers at Barclays from $170.00 to $132.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 15.93% from the company’s previous close.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Bank of America raised shares of MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $167.45.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $113.86 on Thursday. MarketAxess has a 1-year low of $108.75 and a 1-year high of $219.18. The company has a market cap of $4.05 billion, a PE ratio of 13.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $157.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The company’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Stance Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 215.3% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.