Morningstar Investment Management LLC Has $264,000 Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• Morningstar Investment Management cut its MarketAxess stake by 93% in the first quarter, selling 21,405 shares and retaining 1,602 shares worth approximately $264,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 99.01% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed but leans toward caution: MarketAxess has an average “Hold” rating and a consensus price target of $163.18, while several firms recently lowered their targets and Weiss Ratings downgraded the stock to “Sell.”
• MarketAxess shares opened at $116.69, near their 52-week low of $108.75. Despite the share-price weakness, the company exceeded quarterly EPS and revenue expectations, reporting $2.25 EPS and $233.38 million in revenue, up 11.9% year over year.

Morningstar Investment Management LLC cut its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 93.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,602 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 21,405 shares during the quarter. Morningstar Investment Management LLC's holdings in MarketAxess were worth $264,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in MarketAxess by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 280 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westpac Banking Corp bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 1st quarter valued at about $56,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on MKTX shares. Barclays cut their price target on MarketAxess from $170.00 to $132.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $163.18.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $116.69 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $214.42. The stock has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.79, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $120.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $152.91.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.87 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess 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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