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

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $156.10.

A number of brokerages have commented on MKTX. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, June 12th. William Blair lowered MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth about $397,772,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $463,655,000 after buying an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,875,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,338,000 after buying an additional 265,670 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after buying an additional 67,290 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $161.74 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $130.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $150.81. The stock has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.83. 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.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.00 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.