MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

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

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup upped their target price on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. William Blair assumed coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Barclays boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $241.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $217.85 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 29.97, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $217.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $223.53. MarketAxess has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. The company had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.92 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 140,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,063,000 after purchasing an additional 19,962 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $340,000 after purchasing an additional 485 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 139.7% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,257,000 after purchasing an additional 3,240 shares in the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 1,927.3% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 4,237 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $958,000 after purchasing an additional 4,028 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.