MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target Cut to $253.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $274.00 to $253.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 11th. UBS Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $204.00 price objective (up previously from $202.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Barclays cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $226.18.

MarketAxess Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $170.84 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $188.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $208.13. MarketAxess has a 52 week low of $169.59 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $6.38 billion, a PE ratio of 28.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.89.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.06. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.62% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $219.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $218.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.72 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 51.18%.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 1,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.59, for a total transaction of $298,544.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 43,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,062,180.72. This represents a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total value of $276,868.08. Following the sale, the executive directly owned 67,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,542,642.92. The trade was a 2.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Comerica Bank lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.9% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 5,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,121,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.0% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,105,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 49.1% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 13.0% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.6% during the second quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 4,157 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $928,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.