Ieq Capital LLC Purchases 156,664 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 479.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 189,326 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 156,664 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC owned about 0.51% of MarketAxess worth $34,315,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gator Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $2,015,000. HRT Financial LP boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 106.3% in the 4th quarter. HRT Financial LP now owns 214,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,805,000 after purchasing an additional 110,308 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $206,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $201,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 526,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $95,518,000 after purchasing an additional 5,852 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $120.89 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $147.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $165.33. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $113.29 and a fifty-two week high of $228.16.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.87 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 36.88%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on MKTX. Weiss Ratings downgraded MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday. Argus cut MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $183.10.

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.