GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd Has $237.20 Million Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd reduced its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,361,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 137,094 shares during the quarter. MarketAxess comprises 5.5% of GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $237,200,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 393.0% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 98,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,948,000 after purchasing an additional 78,336 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in MarketAxess by 16.4% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 19,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,334,000 after acquiring an additional 2,784 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 190.6% in the second quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 3,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $682,000 after acquiring an additional 2,036 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 238.1% in the second quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,888 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 2,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at about $866,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Barclays dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Argus reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $164.00 target price on MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $200.40.

MarketAxess Trading Up 5.5%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $171.23 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.17 and a 12-month high of $232.84. The company has a market capitalization of $6.36 billion, a PE ratio of 25.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $173.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.79. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 3.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $214.06 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.88% and a net margin of 29.14%.MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.73 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 45.65%.

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.