Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Raises Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,245 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 100 shares during the quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $3,672,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MKTX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after purchasing an additional 90,805 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $520,013,000 after purchasing an additional 341,493 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in MarketAxess by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,472,000 after acquiring an additional 30,180 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,113,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $251,106,000 after acquiring an additional 36,431 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $223.98 on Wednesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.84 and a 12-month high of $296.68. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $205.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $234.85. The stock has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.82%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.11.

MarketAxess Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.