ING Groep NV Boosts Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

ING Groep NV grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 655.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,886 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,387,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 393.0% during the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 98,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,948,000 after acquiring an additional 78,336 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 19,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,334,000 after purchasing an additional 2,784 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 190.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 3,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $682,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter worth about $866,000. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 238.1% in the second quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,888 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $868,000 after buying an additional 2,738 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. Zacks Research upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 9th. Argus lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.40.

MarketAxess Trading Up 1.1%

MKTX stock opened at $179.36 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 3.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $6.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.93, a PEG ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.38. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.17 and a 52 week high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $214.06 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.73 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.78 per share. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.65%.

MarketAxess Company 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.