Wall Street Zen Downgrades MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) to Sell

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

MKTX has been the subject of several other research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $188.00 to $182.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $164.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $201.64.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $176.08 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.95, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $182.09. MarketAxess has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.15. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.20% and a net margin of 26.16%.The company had revenue of $208.82 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.59 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.90 EPS. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 66.6% in the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,681,000 after purchasing an additional 891,303 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in MarketAxess by 6.5% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $339,549,000 after buying an additional 119,036 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $342,312,000 after buying an additional 67,290 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,141,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,460,000 after purchasing an additional 6,448 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 25.4% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 951,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $165,727,000 after purchasing an additional 192,626 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.