MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stock Rated "Hold" by Wall Street Brokerages

Key Points

• MarketAxess has a consensus “Hold” rating from 13 analysts: 12 recommend holding the stock and one recommends buying it. The average 12-month price target is $156.10, below its reported opening price of $164.22.
• The company’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with EPS of $1.95 versus the $1.85 consensus estimate and revenue of $218.41 million. However, revenue declined 0.5% year over year, while analysts expect full-year EPS of $8.06.
• Insiders sold approximately $1.05 million of stock in the last quarter, while institutional investors own 99.01% of shares. MarketAxess also maintains a quarterly dividend of $0.78, equivalent to a 1.9% annualized yield.

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $156.10.

MKTX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered MarketAxess from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings raised MarketAxess from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total value of $1,005,964.80. Following the sale, the director owned 4,033 shares in the company, valued at $658,185.60. This trade represents a 60.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 6,464 shares of company stock valued at $1,050,069 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,057,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 34.9% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 19,749 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,241,000 after purchasing an additional 5,107 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 104.7% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 32,462 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $3,684,000 after purchasing an additional 16,604 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $199,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LP grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 102.1% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 4,834 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $549,000 after purchasing an additional 2,442 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.2%

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $164.22 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $159.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $147.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.80. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85.

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

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

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

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities. Its marketplace connects institutional investors, asset managers, broker-dealers and other market participants, enabling them to trade corporate bonds, emerging-market debt, government securities and other credit products electronically.

The company's services include automated trading tools, request-for-quote workflows and its Open Trading marketplace, which brings together liquidity from a broad network of institutional participants.

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