MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Down 5% - Here's What Happened

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report)'s share price was down 5% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $218.40 and last traded at $219.64. Approximately 108,435 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 490,549 shares. The stock had previously closed at $231.09.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on MKTX shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Bank of America boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Trading Up 1.3%

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $217.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $226.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.81 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.92 EPS. The company's revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.42%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is presently 52.87%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Norges Bank purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $119,095,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 341,493 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $71,103,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 11.4% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

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.