Piper Sandler Cuts MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target to $240.00

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its target price trimmed by Piper Sandler from $265.00 to $240.00 in a research report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on MKTX. UBS Group upped their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $262.10.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $219.60 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.76, a PEG ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day moving average of $249.54 and a 200-day moving average of $245.50. MarketAxess has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $296.68.

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

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871 in the last three months. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,566 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $314,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,953,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

About MarketAxess

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.