WINTON GROUP Ltd Boosts Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

WINTON GROUP Ltd raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 190.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,364 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,850 shares during the quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $6,591,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Stance Capital LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MKTX. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Argus lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $190.88.

MarketAxess Stock Down 3.1%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $116.93 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.55 and a 1 year high of $228.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $152.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $167.09. The firm has a market cap of $4.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.87 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.04 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.88%.

MarketAxess Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.