Barclays Lowers MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target to $132.00

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its target price reduced by research analysts at Barclays from $170.00 to $132.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 16.24% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target 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. Argus downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Bank of America raised shares of MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $173.45.

MarketAxess Stock Down 3.1%

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $113.56 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $128.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $158.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. The company has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.88. MarketAxess has a one year low of $108.75 and a one year high of $220.42.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $463,655,000 after buying an additional 1,607,009 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $575,546,000 after acquiring an additional 944,830 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $172,373,000 after acquiring an additional 932,687 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP grew its position in MarketAxess by 76.6% in the fourth quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $291,691,000 after acquiring an additional 697,972 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $91,324,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.