Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Lowers MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target to $255.00

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its price target decreased by research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $276.00 to $255.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 10.80% from the stock’s previous close.

MKTX has been the topic of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $264.60.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $230.15 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $266.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $242.99. MarketAxess has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.68 billion, a PE ratio of 31.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.00.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871 over the last quarter. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 17.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $366,580,000 after purchasing an additional 170,095 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,032,000 after purchasing an additional 8,042 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $275,122,000 after purchasing an additional 139,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in MarketAxess by 53.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,447,000 after purchasing an additional 285,665 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.