Wells Fargo & Company MN Sells 32,149 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Wells Fargo & Company MN reduced its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 53.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,588 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 32,149 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $6,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 16.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 140,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,063,000 after buying an additional 19,962 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $836,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 10,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,640,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 242.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,337,000 after acquiring an additional 5,818 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 22.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,265,000 after buying an additional 10,361 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $220.00 to $213.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. William Blair started coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. UBS Group reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.11.

MarketAxess Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $225.16 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $207.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $234.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 41.82%.

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.