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

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its price objective decreased by Piper Sandler from $265.00 to $240.00 in a report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on MKTX. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup increased their target price on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $262.10.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $219.22 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $251.02 and a 200 day moving average of $245.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.70, a PEG ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.03. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. Analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 7.38 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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