MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Share Price Crosses Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)’s share price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of $146.91 and traded as high as $164.61. MarketAxess shares last traded at $164.49, with a volume of 846,429 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. Barclays increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. William Blair downgraded shares of MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. UBS Group downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $129.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $159.44.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.2%

The stock has a market cap of $5.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.28, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $163.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $146.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $218.41 million for 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 firm’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.08 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total value of $1,005,964.80. Following the sale, the director owned 4,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $658,185.60. This trade represents a 60.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,464 shares of company stock valued at $1,055,022. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth approximately $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at approximately $397,772,000. Azora Capital LP bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at approximately $58,230,000. Davis Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at approximately $56,745,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,446,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities and related market data services. The company connects institutional investors, broker-dealers and other market participants, enabling them to trade corporate bonds, government bonds, emerging-market debt and other credit products through digital workflows.

Its offerings include electronic request-for-quote trading, all-to-all trading through its Open Trading marketplace, portfolio trading, and tools designed to support pricing, liquidity discovery and trade execution.