Rothschild & Co Redburn Downgrades MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) to Hold

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) was downgraded by stock analysts at Rothschild & Co Redburn from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on MKTX. Argus lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $184.56.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.2%

MarketAxess stock opened at $116.33 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $148.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $165.65. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $113.29 and a fifty-two week high of $228.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The business had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.87 EPS. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 32.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 263,858 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,531,000 after buying an additional 64,627 shares in the last quarter. Bull Harbor Capital LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,052,000. Amundi lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 803.9% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 258,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,682,000 after buying an additional 230,087 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 9.6% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,098 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 24.1% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 43,688 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,208,000 after buying an additional 8,478 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.