Brokerages Set MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target at $205.91

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $205.9091.

Several equities analysts recently commented on MKTX shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Piper Sandler set a $180.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $255.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 7th.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total transaction of $276,868.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive directly owned 67,681 shares in the company, valued at $12,542,642.92. This represents a 2.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in MarketAxess by 66.6% in the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $388,681,000 after buying an additional 891,303 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 485.6% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at about $114,593,000. North Reef Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 117.0% in the third 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 last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess by 329.4% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 618,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,904,000 after purchasing an additional 474,776 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $165.06 on Friday. MarketAxess has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $245.85. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $167.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $190.82. The company has a market capitalization of $6.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.07, a PEG ratio of 7.62 and a beta of 1.00.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.59 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.90 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 51.70%.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.