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

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $190.8750.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Argus lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Stance Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $130.04 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.92. MarketAxess has a twelve month low of $129.55 and a twelve month high of $228.16. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $157.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $168.81.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 8.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 36.88%.

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.