MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Receives $156.10 Average Target Price from Analysts

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $156.10.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. William Blair downgraded shares of MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $163.26 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market cap of $5.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.25, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $144.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.82. MarketAxess has a 12-month low of $108.75 and a 12-month high of $195.96.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 35.22%.The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.00 EPS. On average, analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in MarketAxess by 10,925.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,816,856 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $546,665,000 after acquiring an additional 4,773,168 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth approximately $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at approximately $397,772,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during 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 buying an additional 932,687 shares during the last quarter. 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.