Morgan Stanley Lowers MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target to $129.00

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley cut its price target on MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) from $195 to $129 and kept an equal weight rating. The new target still implies about 12.27% upside from the current share price.
• Other analysts have also turned more cautious: UBS lowered its target to $200, Goldman Sachs reduced its target to $130, and consensus on the stock remains Hold with a $167.45 average price target.
• MarketAxess recently reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, with EPS of $2.25 topping estimates and revenue rising 11.9% year over year. The stock was trading at $114.90, near its 52-week low of $108.75.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) had its target price reduced by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $129.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "equal weight" rating on the financial services provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective points to a potential upside of 12.27% from the company's current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Argus cut MarketAxess from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a "neutral" rating and set a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $167.45.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $114.90 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $4.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.88. MarketAxess has a twelve month low of $108.75 and a twelve month high of $219.18. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $127.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $158.12.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The company had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 169.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $463,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its position in MarketAxess by 42.4% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $575,546,000 after buying an additional 944,830 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $172,373,000 after purchasing an additional 932,687 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 76.6% during the 4th quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $291,691,000 after buying an additional 697,972 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $91,324,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

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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