Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd Takes $429,000 Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 3,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $429,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MKTX. Ancora Advisors LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 1.9% in the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $614,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 1.7% during the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $939,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Krilogy Financial LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.0% during the first quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 7,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,368,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 7,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,302,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MarketAxess stock opened at $162.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $108.75 and a 12-month high of $195.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $136.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $150.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The company had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.00 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be issued a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. UBS Group lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.10.

MarketAxess Company 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.