BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. Invests $8.97 Million in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 49,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,972,000. BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. owned 0.13% of MarketAxess as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 444.2% during the third quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,638,000 after buying an additional 31,093 shares during the last quarter. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $3,361,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in MarketAxess by 163.1% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 12,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,280,000 after buying an additional 7,798 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in MarketAxess by 305.3% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 46,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,449,000 after buying an additional 35,056 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in MarketAxess by 66.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,681,000 after buying an additional 891,303 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.6%

MarketAxess stock opened at $129.29 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $128.94 and a fifty-two week high of $228.16. The stock has a market cap of $4.59 billion, a PE ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $156.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $168.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The business had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 36.88%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $190.88.

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.