Equitable Trust Co. Invests $276,000 in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Equitable Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 942 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $276,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,342 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $374,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 94.6% during the 1st quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 72 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Gladius Capital Management LP raised its stake in MarketAxess by 39.6% in the 3rd quarter. Gladius Capital Management LP now owns 134 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its stake in MarketAxess by 47.3% in the 4th quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 134 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in MarketAxess by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,618 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,060,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $224.32 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $200.01 and a fifty-two week high of $344.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.75, a PEG ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $219.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $237.66.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.11. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.29% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The firm had revenue of $197.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.21 EPS for the current 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 given a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 13th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 43.21%.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $225.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $239.00 to $236.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $260.78.

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.