MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have issued a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $156.10.

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $200.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX opened at $163.00 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $145.93 and its 200-day moving average is $149.57.

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

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.79%.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total transaction of $1,005,964.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,033 shares in the company, valued at $658,185.60. This represents a 60.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,464 shares of company stock worth $1,050,069. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Westpac Banking Corp acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the first quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in MarketAxess by 215.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for institutional fixed-income markets. Through its technology, investors and dealers can trade corporate bonds, government securities, emerging-market debt and other credit products in an electronic environment designed to improve access, execution and transparency.

The company’s offerings include its Open Trading marketplace, which connects a broad network of institutional participants, as well as a range of trading protocols that support different liquidity and execution needs.