MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03, Zacks reports. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX traded down $0.66 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $200.66. 86,517 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 485,959. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.02. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $227.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $246.99.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares in the company, valued at $160,883,880.75. This represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.