MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Sell”

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $188.00 to $182.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $201.64.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $176.08 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.97. MarketAxess has a one year low of $156.17 and a one year high of $232.84. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $173.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.35.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.15. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.20% and a net margin of 26.16%.The company had revenue of $208.82 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.59 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.90 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its position in MarketAxess by 66.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,681,000 after buying an additional 891,303 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 485.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $167,195,000 after acquiring an additional 628,954 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at about $114,593,000. North Reef Capital Management LP boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 117.0% during the 3rd quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 911,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $158,804,000 after purchasing an additional 491,358 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in MarketAxess by 469.1% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 486,106 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,704,000 after purchasing an additional 400,691 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.