MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Barclays dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Citigroup raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $204.00 price objective (up from $202.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $232.11.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $187.01 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $215.61 and its 200 day moving average is $213.56. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $182.99 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.99 billion, a PE ratio of 31.48, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.06. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%. The company had revenue of $219.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.05 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 329.4% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 618,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $133,904,000 after buying an additional 474,776 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $519,533,000 after buying an additional 236,118 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth $46,079,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 999.6% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 222,342 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,104,000 after purchasing an additional 202,121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 25,960.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 183,465 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,693,000 after purchasing an additional 182,761 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

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.