Analysts Set MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Target Price at $257.33

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $254.78.

MKTX has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $191.42 on Friday. MarketAxess has a twelve month low of $188.88 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.33, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $222.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $246.46.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. Research analysts predict that MarketAxess will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.72%.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in MarketAxess by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after buying an additional 90,805 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $520,013,000 after purchasing an additional 341,493 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in MarketAxess by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in MarketAxess by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,472,000 after purchasing an additional 30,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,113,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $251,106,000 after purchasing an additional 36,431 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.