Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Buys New Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 195 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $57,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,184,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,423,499,000 after acquiring an additional 25,208 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 18.3% during 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. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,071,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $577,691,000 after buying an additional 19,225 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,868,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $635,737,000 after buying an additional 13,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.0% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,705,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $364,462,000 after buying an additional 33,288 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on MKTX. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Bank of America started coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $199.00 target price for the company. Barclays decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $239.00 to $236.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 8th. 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. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $250.00 to $237.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.80.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total transaction of $442,520.00. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 70,092 shares in the company, valued at $15,508,555.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX opened at $204.01 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $199.34 and a 1 year high of $336.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $216.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $237.56. The company has a market cap of $7.67 billion, a PE ratio of 29.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $197.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.29% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.58 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

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.