Holocene Advisors LP Increases Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Holocene Advisors LP grew its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 266.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 280,445 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 203,871 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP owned 0.75% of MarketAxess worth $48,868,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 66.6% in the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,681,000 after purchasing an additional 891,303 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in MarketAxess by 6.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $339,549,000 after purchasing an additional 119,036 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,141,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,460,000 after purchasing an additional 6,448 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in MarketAxess by 25.4% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 951,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $165,727,000 after buying an additional 192,626 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $180.33 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $176.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.72. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.17 and a 52 week high of $232.84. The company has a market capitalization of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.08, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 2.80, a current ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

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 analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.73 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 46.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Argus cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.