Townsquare Capital LLC Invests $1.85 Million in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Townsquare Capital LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 8,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its position 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 in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 1,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $249,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $673,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.11.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $222.73 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $206.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $234.77.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 EPS 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 paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 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.