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

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $263.40.

MKTX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays raised their price target on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group raised their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,142 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Tobam raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Tobam now owns 69,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,319,000 after purchasing an additional 9,657 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2,428.6% in the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. Geneva Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 5,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,298,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 174.2% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,743 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,478,000 after purchasing an additional 4,284 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $274.41 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $269.85 and a 200-day moving average of $232.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.04 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $297.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 2.91 and a current ratio of 2.91.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.08. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 33.71%. The company had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.26 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 42.65%.

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.