20,381 Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Bought by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 20,381 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,551,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $342,312,000 after buying an additional 67,290 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,141,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,460,000 after acquiring an additional 6,448 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 485.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $167,195,000 after acquiring an additional 628,954 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter worth approximately $114,593,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess by 119.1% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 487,197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $108,811,000 after purchasing an additional 264,855 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 17th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $164.00 price target on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $201.64.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of MKTX opened at $171.66 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $173.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $181.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.19, a P/E/G ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.97. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.17 and a 12-month high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $208.82 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.59 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 20.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.90 EPS. Analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

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.