Van ECK Associates Corp Grows Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 119,036 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 0.05% of MarketAxess worth $339,549,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 200.0% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth about $38,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $200.40.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.5%

MKTX opened at $185.12 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.80, a current ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $176.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.97. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.17 and a 52 week high of $232.84. The company has a market cap of $6.58 billion, a PE ratio of 27.80, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.93.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis 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 46.85%.

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.