BNP Paribas Financial Markets Has $84.70 Million Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 469.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 486,106 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 400,691 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in MarketAxess were worth $84,704,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 151.0% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $580,000 after buying an additional 1,614 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 8.4% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $371,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 40.7% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 3,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $689,000 after acquiring an additional 921 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter worth approximately $406,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target 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. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $200.40.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $181.49 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.45 billion, a PE ratio of 27.25, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.93. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84. The company has a current ratio of 2.80, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.00.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.88% and a net margin of 29.14%.The firm had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.73 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. 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.