Piper Sandler Cuts MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target to $213.00

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its price target trimmed by Piper Sandler from $220.00 to $213.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on MKTX. Bank of America boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. William Blair started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.11.

MarketAxess Stock Up 3.5 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $210.32 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $204.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $235.51. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a $0.76 dividend. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.82%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,002,475,000 after purchasing an additional 90,805 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased 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 worth $520,013,000 after acquiring an additional 341,493 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased 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 worth $519,533,000 after acquiring an additional 236,118 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares during the period. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in MarketAxess by 2.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 30,180 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

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.