Heartland Advisors Inc. Purchases New Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Heartland Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 104,926 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,908,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 215.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $162.11 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $132.01 and its 200-day moving average is $150.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The company has a market capitalization of $5.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96.

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

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be given a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. UBS Group lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $200.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.10.

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.