MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $241.78.

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $213.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MarketAxess stock opened at $225.25 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.98, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $219.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $218.66. MarketAxess has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.92 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st were issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 21st. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 52.87%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at about $119,095,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 329.4% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 618,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,904,000 after purchasing an additional 474,776 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at about $71,103,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 11.4% during 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 in the last quarter. 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.