Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC Has $2.37 Million Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 60.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,082 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,942 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,371,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Stance Capital LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $43,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective for the company. Barclays lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Argus downgraded MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings downgraded MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $190.88.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $116.11 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a PE ratio of 13.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.86. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $113.29 and a 52 week high of $228.16. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $149.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $165.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.87 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.88%.

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.