Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Begins Coverage on MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Investment analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods began coverage on shares of MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) in a report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 12.87% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on MKTX. Argus downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $201.11.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX stock opened at $172.77 on Wednesday. MarketAxess has a twelve month low of $156.17 and a twelve month high of $232.84. The company has a quick ratio of 2.80, a current ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $6.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s fifty day moving average is $175.86 and its 200-day moving average is $173.25.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.04). MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. The firm had revenue of $209.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $214.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.73 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Purpose Unlimited Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $735,000. Wick Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $298,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 50.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 114,619 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,775,000 after buying an additional 38,292 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.