Van Berkom & Associates Inc. Decreases Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Van Berkom & Associates Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 97.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,947 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 193,373 shares during the quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,118,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in MarketAxess by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,953,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $303,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $376,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 179.5% in the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $189.81 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $188.57 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $217.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.11, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.02.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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%. Research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a $0.76 dividend. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 41.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company 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.