MarketAxess' (MKTX) "Market Perform" Rating Reaffirmed at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Key Points

• Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “Market Perform” rating on MarketAxess and raised its price target from $150 to $167, implying about 2.77% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious, with a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $156.10; 11 analysts rate the stock Hold, compared with one Buy and one Sell.
• MarketAxess exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $1.95 in EPS versus $1.85 expected and $218.41 million in revenue versus $216.70 million, although revenue declined 0.5% year over year.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market perform" rating restated by equities researchers at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $167.00 target price on the financial services provider's stock, up from their prior target price of $150.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods' price target suggests a potential upside of 2.77% from the stock's previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $156.10.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.0%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $162.50 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess has a one year low of $108.75 and a one year high of $195.96. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $124.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $151.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $216.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.00 earnings per share. MarketAxess's revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 8.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at $308,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at $8,512,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at $374,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $453,941,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $452,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About MarketAxess

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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