Focus Partners Wealth Buys Shares of 1,501 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Focus Partners Wealth bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,501 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $339,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 179.5% during the 4th quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Allianz SE bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13,900.0% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 185.7% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 160 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $213.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. William Blair started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $219.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a PE ratio of 30.21, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $186.84 and a 1-year high of $296.68. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $217.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $224.44.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.92 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 52.87%.

MarketAxess Profile

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.