MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $254.78.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $195.85 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $211.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $242.84. The company has a market cap of $7.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. On average, analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 41.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Norges Bank purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $119,095,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 17.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth approximately $71,103,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after buying an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 11.4% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 236,118 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.