Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Neutral” Rating for MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX)

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Piper Sandler in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $265.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target would suggest a potential downside of 3.52% from the company’s previous close.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup upped their price target on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $263.40.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of MKTX stock traded up $0.27 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $274.68. 386,697 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 356,758. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $270.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $233.28. MarketAxess has a 1-year low of $192.42 and a 1-year high of $297.97. The company has a market cap of $10.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.64 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.91, a current ratio of 3.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 7.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 2,428.6% during the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 174.2% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,743 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,478,000 after acquiring an additional 4,284 shares during the period. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 18.0% during the first quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after buying an additional 232 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the first quarter worth $752,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 20.7% in the first quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 6,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after purchasing an additional 1,179 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About MarketAxess

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.