MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Position Cut by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp trimmed its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 37.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,214,967 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 733,666 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 3.27% of MarketAxess worth $220,212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 42.4% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $575,546,000 after buying an additional 944,830 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $342,312,000 after buying an additional 67,290 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 951,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $165,727,000 after buying an additional 192,626 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 5,086.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,373,000 after buying an additional 932,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Reef Capital Management LP grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 117.0% in the 3rd quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 911,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $158,804,000 after buying an additional 491,358 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $120.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.29, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. The stock 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 1 year low of $113.29 and a 1 year high of $228.16.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The company’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. Research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Barclays decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price target for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.10.

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.