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

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $264.60.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Accent Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter worth $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess by 405.1% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth $54,000. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 555.6% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $230.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.19, a PEG ratio of 10.54 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $266.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $242.69. MarketAxess has a 52-week low of $192.42 and a 52-week high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.11%.

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.