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 on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price points to a potential upside of 10.80% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on MKTX. 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. Citigroup boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $264.60.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $230.15 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.19, a PEG ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $266.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $242.99. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the business’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % 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, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % 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 worth $8,183,871 in the last 90 days. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2,889.6% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 339,261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $68,032,000 after acquiring an additional 327,913 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $501,907,000 after purchasing an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 53.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $164,447,000 after purchasing an additional 285,665 shares during the period. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 120.6% during the 2nd quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 393,073 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $78,823,000 after purchasing an additional 214,928 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 18.2% during the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,330,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $266,881,000 after buying an additional 204,960 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.