EntryPoint Capital LLC Acquires Shares of 1,236 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $279,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth $71,103,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in MarketAxess by 17.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $46,079,000. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $42,967,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MarketAxess stock opened at $219.01 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $207.65 and its 200 day moving average is $239.48. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a $0.76 dividend. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 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.