Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Invests $3.55 Million in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 20,381 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,551,000. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. owned 0.05% of MarketAxess at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after purchasing an additional 67,290 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,141,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,460,000 after buying an additional 6,448 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 485.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $167,195,000 after buying an additional 628,954 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $114,593,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 119.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 487,197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $108,811,000 after acquiring an additional 264,855 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $171.66 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.19, a P/E/G ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.97. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.17 and a 52-week high of $232.84. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $173.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.29.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Zacks Research raised shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $201.64.

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.