MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Receives $267.50 Average Price Target from Analysts

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $267.50.

MKTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $261.71 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $273.41 and its 200-day moving average is $239.06. The company has a market capitalization of $9.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.85 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 207.3% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 14,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,100,000 after acquiring an additional 9,539 shares during the period. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 1st quarter valued at $517,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 46.2% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,949 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,735,000 after purchasing an additional 2,513 shares during the last quarter. LBP AM SA raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 88.3% during the 1st quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 3,885 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $852,000 after buying an additional 1,822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 1st quarter worth $229,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

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.