Yousif Capital Management LLC Has $2.04 Million Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 158.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,185 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,040,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 15.0% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 4,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $833,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares in the last quarter. Matauro LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,448,000. Oak Thistle LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 119.2% during the 3rd quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 10,404 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,813,000 after purchasing an additional 5,657 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth about $494,000. Finally, Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 5,307 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,184,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $209.00 to $204.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Loop Capital set a $164.00 target price on MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $204.82.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $182.86 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $6.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.10, a PEG ratio of 6.62 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $169.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $186.93. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.17 and a 1-year high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.15. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.20% and a net margin of 26.16%.The firm had revenue of $208.82 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.59 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.90 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.70%.

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.