MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Trading 3.5% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)’s stock price rose 3.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $189.00 to $191.00. Bank of America currently has an underperform rating on the stock. MarketAxess traded as high as $220.03 and last traded at $218.18. Approximately 99,555 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 462,906 shares. The stock had previously closed at $210.83.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $255.44.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $119,095,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $520,013,000 after acquiring an additional 341,493 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth about $71,103,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in 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 valued at $519,533,000 after purchasing an additional 236,118 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.5 %

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $206.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $237.71. The company has a market cap of $8.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.43%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 41.82%.

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.