LRT Capital Management LLC Sells 3,725 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

LRT Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 23.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,170 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,725 shares during the period. LRT Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 151.0% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,614 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 8.4% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $371,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its position in MarketAxess by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 3,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $689,000 after purchasing an additional 921 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter worth about $406,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Zacks Research raised shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Four 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.40.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $180.33 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.80 and a quick ratio of 2.80. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.72. The firm has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.08, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

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

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.