Fox Run Management L.L.C. Acquires 3,686 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Fox Run Management L.L.C. increased its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 73.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,686 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,517,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after purchasing an additional 67,290 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,141,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,460,000 after acquiring an additional 6,448 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 485.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $167,195,000 after acquiring an additional 628,954 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth about $114,593,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 119.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 487,197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $108,811,000 after acquiring an additional 264,855 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $181.83 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.30, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 3.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $175.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.01. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.17 and a twelve month high of $232.84.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 46.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MKTX. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Argus reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.40.

MarketAxess 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.