Rhumbline Advisers Buys 13,413 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 17.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 90,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,413 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in MarketAxess were worth $15,760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Krilogy Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at $833,000. SVB Wealth LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 2.8% in the third quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 6,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,207,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at about $287,000. AGF Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 16,838 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,524 shares during the period. Finally, 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $176.12 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $6.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.97. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84. The company has a current ratio of 3.42, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.53.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). The company 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 was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.73 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.78 per share. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Four 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.40.

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.