MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Downgraded by Rothschild & Co Redburn to “Hold”

Rothschild & Co Redburn cut shares of MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Weiss Ratings lowered MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Argus lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Barclays reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $184.56.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $116.33 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $165.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. The firm has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.86. MarketAxess has a one year low of $113.29 and a one year high of $228.16.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.87 EPS. On average, analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 36.88%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 444.2% during the third quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,638,000 after acquiring an additional 31,093 shares during the last quarter. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $3,361,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 305.3% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 46,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,449,000 after acquiring an additional 35,056 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 655.2% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 13,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,387,000 after purchasing an additional 11,886 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 66.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $388,681,000 after purchasing an additional 891,303 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.