MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Rating Increased to Neutral at Bank of America

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Bank of America from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $170.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 46.14% from the company’s current price.

MKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Argus lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $183.10.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $116.33 on Friday. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $113.29 and a 12 month high of $228.16. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $165.65. The firm has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.86.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period last year, the business posted $1.87 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,323 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $579,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $614,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $939,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Krilogy Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 7,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,368,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.