MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $156.10 According to Analysts

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $156.10.

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. UBS Group downgraded MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Rothschild & Co Redburn reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $167.00 price target (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total transaction of $1,005,964.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $658,185.60. This represents a 60.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 6,364 shares of company stock worth $1,038,557. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Investors Research Corp lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 5,681.8% in the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 1,272 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250 shares during the last quarter. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter worth $3,057,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in MarketAxess by 34.9% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 19,749 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,241,000 after buying an additional 5,107 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 104.7% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 32,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,684,000 after buying an additional 16,604 shares during the period. Finally, Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at $199,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $164.31 on Friday. MarketAxess has a 52-week low of $108.75 and a 52-week high of $195.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.85. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $163.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.00. The company has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.38, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.80.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The firm had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $216.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.00 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 8.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities. Its marketplace connects institutional investors, asset managers, broker-dealers and other market participants, enabling them to trade corporate bonds, emerging-market debt, government securities and other credit products electronically.

The company’s services include automated trading tools, request-for-quote workflows and its Open Trading marketplace, which brings together liquidity from a broad network of institutional participants.