MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Reaches New 12-Month Low After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) hit a new 52-week low on Tuesday after The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on the stock from $235.00 to $210.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. MarketAxess traded as low as $191.91 and last traded at $191.91, with a volume of 50922 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $196.20.

MKTX has been the subject of several other research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after acquiring an additional 90,805 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in MarketAxess by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,472,000 after buying an additional 30,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 14.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $275,122,000 after acquiring an additional 139,949 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.5 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.36 billion, a PE ratio of 26.86, a PEG ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.02. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $223.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $246.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. On average, analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 40.72%.

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.