Piper Sandler Reaffirms Neutral Rating for MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Piper Sandler reiterated their neutral rating on shares of MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $204.00 target price on the financial services provider's stock, up from their previous target price of $202.00.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on MKTX. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $240.67.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX traded down $1.82 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $213.71. The stock had a trading volume of 68,485 shares, compared to its average volume of 496,936. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $219.93 and a 200-day moving average of $215.44. The company has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.85. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $186.84 and a 12-month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.57% and a return on equity of 19.93%. MarketAxess's quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.92 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Atria Investments Inc raised its position in MarketAxess by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 1,273 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $288,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,205 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $272,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess by 2,176.6% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 21,446 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,848,000 after acquiring an additional 20,504 shares during the period. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 1,494 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $338,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the period. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in MarketAxess by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $309,472,000 after acquiring an additional 30,180 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About MarketAxess

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.