TD Asset Management Inc Decreases Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

TD Asset Management Inc reduced its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 45.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 96,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 79,356 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $16,735,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 393.0% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 98,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,948,000 after purchasing an additional 78,336 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 655.2% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 13,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,387,000 after acquiring an additional 11,886 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 535.8% in the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 108,481 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,228,000 after buying an additional 91,419 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.5% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 39,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,722,000 after purchasing an additional 1,697 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,551,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $192.00 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.80 and a quick ratio of 2.80. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $156.17 and a one year high of $232.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.94.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.73 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend yield of 1.6%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on MKTX. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Weiss Ratings raised MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. UBS Group reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has 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 $200.40.

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.