MarketAxess’ (MKTX) “Market Perform” Rating Reiterated at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated their market perform rating on shares of MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) in a research note released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $167.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $150.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. William Blair cut MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.10.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $162.60 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $151.01. The stock has a market cap of $5.72 billion, a PE ratio of 19.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.00 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in MarketAxess by 215.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter worth about $49,000. 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.