MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $217.31, but opened at $207.00. MarketAxess shares last traded at $205.44, with a volume of 227,020 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $267.00.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $7.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.76, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $230.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $247.65.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value 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 represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. The trade was 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 quarter. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,953,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in MarketAxess by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $303,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in MarketAxess by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versor Investments LP boosted its position in MarketAxess by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 1,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.