MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stock Has Average Target Price of $159.44 According to Brokerages

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $159.44.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $167.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $129.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $164.92 on Tuesday. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $163.72 and its 200-day moving average is $155.52. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $108.75 and a 52 week high of $195.96. The firm has a market cap of $5.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.80.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by ($0.09). MarketAxess had a return on equity of 23.15% and a net margin of 33.51%. The company had revenue of $210.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.98 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 11th will be given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 10th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.19%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $658,185.60. This trade represents a 60.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 6,464 shares of company stock worth $1,055,022 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in MarketAxess during the second quarter worth about $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth about $397,772,000. Azora Capital LP bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at about $58,230,000. Davis Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at about $56,745,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $34,446,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities and related market data services. The company connects institutional investors, broker-dealers and other market participants, enabling them to trade corporate bonds, government bonds, emerging-market debt and other credit products through digital workflows.

Its offerings include electronic request-for-quote trading, all-to-all trading through its Open Trading marketplace, portfolio trading, and tools designed to support pricing, liquidity discovery and trade execution.