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

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $261.30.

MKTX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group raised their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,953,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in MarketAxess by 4.9% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $324,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 6.0% during the third quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 1,342 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $216.63 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a PEG ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $245.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.29. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.38 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.11%.

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.