MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• MarketAxess has a consensus “Hold” rating from 13 brokerages, with 11 holds, one sell and one buy. Analysts’ average 12-month price target is $156.10, below the reported share price of $163.38.
• The company’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with earnings of $1.95 per share versus the $1.85 consensus estimate and revenue of $218.41 million versus $216.70 million expected. However, revenue declined 0.5% year over year.
• Institutional investors own 99.01% of the stock, while MarketAxess pays a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share, equivalent to an annualized $3.12 dividend and a 1.9% yield.

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $156.10.

MKTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen cut MarketAxess from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Bank of America raised shares of MarketAxess from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Amundi increased its position in MarketAxess by 803.9% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 258,708 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $42,682,000 after purchasing an additional 230,087 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at approximately $9,585,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 638.7% during the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 21,009 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $3,472,000 after buying an additional 18,165 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in MarketAxess by 32.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 263,858 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $43,531,000 after buying an additional 64,627 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter worth $453,941,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $163.38 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess has a 1 year low of $108.75 and a 1 year high of $195.96. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $141.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $150.14.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. MarketAxess's revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company's network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.

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