Citigroup Raises MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target to $325.00

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its target price raised by Citigroup from $310.00 to $325.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target suggests a potential upside of 19.03% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. StockNews.com upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $240.50.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:MKTX traded down $0.90 on Friday, hitting $273.04. 273,336 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 416,039. The stock has a market cap of $10.35 billion, a PE ratio of 40.15, a PEG ratio of 6.04 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 2.91, a quick ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $244.04 and a 200-day moving average of $220.98. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.04. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 33.71%. The company had revenue of $197.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.07 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.63, for a total transaction of $142,915.71. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 7,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,716,146.67. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,539,440 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $995,272,000 after purchasing an additional 13,018 shares during the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 2,425,897 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $531,878,000 after purchasing an additional 564,820 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $366,580,000 after purchasing an additional 170,095 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,330,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $266,881,000 after purchasing an additional 204,960 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 53.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $164,447,000 after purchasing an additional 285,665 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

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.