Piper Sandler Lowers MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target to $240.00

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its price target lowered by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from $265.00 to $240.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price points to a potential upside of 7.94% from the stock’s previous close.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $262.10.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.8 %

MKTX opened at $222.34 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $252.49 and a 200 day moving average of $245.51. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $296.68. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 30.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.03.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. The trade was a 3.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871 over the last quarter. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in MarketAxess by 461.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 57,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,041,000 after acquiring an additional 47,568 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 40.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 22.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,265,000 after purchasing an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 242.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,337,000 after buying an additional 5,818 shares during the period. Finally, Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 10,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,640,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

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.