MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Price Target Cut to $240.00 by Analysts at Piper Sandler

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) had its target price lowered by stock analysts at Piper Sandler from $265.00 to $240.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 9.29% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $262.10.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $219.60 on Tuesday. MarketAxess has a twelve month low of $192.42 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The company’s 50 day moving average is $251.02 and its 200 day moving average is $245.69. The company has a market cap of $8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.03.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 in the last three months. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at $1,088,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake 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 worth $13,041,000 after buying an additional 47,568 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 40.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $159,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,265,000 after buying an additional 10,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 242.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,337,000 after acquiring an additional 5,818 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.