MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Short Interest Update

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,350,000 shares, a drop of 13.5% from the February 28th total of 1,560,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 630,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days. Currently, 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MKTX. Bank of America boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $255.44.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 26.0% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 6,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 3.1% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,693,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 5.6% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,804 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $718,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth $614,000. Finally, Centiva Capital LP acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth about $332,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX traded up $8.80 on Thursday, hitting $219.63. 338,204 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 463,796. The business has a 50-day moving average of $207.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $238.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.21, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess has a 12 month low of $186.84 and a 12 month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. Equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.82%.

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.