MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $156.10.

MKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. William Blair downgraded shares of MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total value of $1,005,964.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $658,185.60. This represents a 60.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,464 shares of company stock valued at $1,050,069. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $3,057,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 34.9% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 19,749 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,241,000 after purchasing an additional 5,107 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 104.7% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at about $199,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LP increased its stake in MarketAxess by 102.1% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 4,834 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $549,000 after buying an additional 2,442 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $164.03 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $162.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $147.15. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $108.75 and a 12-month high of $195.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.34, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.80.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.00 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 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.