Oak Thistle LLC Acquires Shares of 1,436 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,436 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $421,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 146.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,265,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $270,422,000 after purchasing an additional 752,111 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 18.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,928,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,537,253,000 after purchasing an additional 608,107 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 385.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 545,563 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $116,554,000 after purchasing an additional 433,217 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth about $110,636,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 138.8% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 627,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $178,810,000 after purchasing an additional 364,829 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In other news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total value of $442,520.00. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 70,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,508,555.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Up 4.6 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $224.79 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $221.81 and a 200 day moving average of $237.41. The stock has a market cap of $8.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.98. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $200.01 and a twelve month high of $387.87.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.11. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 34.29%. The company had revenue of $197.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $196.70 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.58 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 14th were paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 13th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 43.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $263.00 to $225.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays lowered MarketAxess from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $246.00 to $291.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $266.89.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.