Magnetar Financial LLC Has $2.83 Million Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Magnetar Financial LLC lessened its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 49.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,232 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 15,649 shares during the quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,828,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in MarketAxess by 66.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $388,681,000 after acquiring an additional 891,303 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 6.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $339,549,000 after purchasing an additional 119,036 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $342,312,000 after purchasing an additional 67,290 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 6,448 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 485.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $167,195,000 after purchasing an additional 628,954 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $179.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $6.36 billion, a PE ratio of 26.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a current ratio of 2.80. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.17 and a 52-week high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.06 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.88% and a net margin of 29.14%.The company’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.73 EPS. On average, analysts predict 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 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.40.

About MarketAxess

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.