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

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the nine analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $254.78.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $216.75 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $207.57 and a 200-day moving average of $238.95.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. Equities analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 41.82%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after purchasing an additional 90,805 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $520,013,000 after buying an additional 341,493 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $519,533,000 after buying an additional 236,118 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in MarketAxess by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after buying an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,472,000 after acquiring an additional 30,180 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.