Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases Shares of 16,500 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 16,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,722,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 444.2% during the 3rd quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,638,000 after buying an additional 31,093 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 305.3% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 46,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,449,000 after acquiring an additional 35,056 shares during the period. North Reef Capital Management LP grew its position in MarketAxess by 117.0% in the third quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 911,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $158,804,000 after acquiring an additional 491,358 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 163.1% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 12,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,280,000 after purchasing an additional 7,798 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 6.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $339,549,000 after purchasing an additional 119,036 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $112.51 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $136.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $162.12. The firm has a market cap of $4.00 billion, a PE ratio of 13.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $108.75 and a 12-month high of $225.07.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.87 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Argus lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $183.10.

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.