Holocene Advisors LP Buys 203,871 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Holocene Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 266.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 280,445 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 203,871 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $48,868,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew 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 buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.40.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $180.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.08, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.80 and a quick ratio of 2.80. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $176.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $174.72. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.04). MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. The company had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $214.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.73 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 payout ratio is presently 46.85%.

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.