Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 17,202 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 17,202 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,118,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $376,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in MarketAxess by 163.1% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 12,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,280,000 after purchasing an additional 7,798 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in MarketAxess by 298.2% during the 4th quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 13,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,469,000 after purchasing an additional 10,203 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 387.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 63,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,460,000 after purchasing an additional 50,244 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co. bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth approximately $431,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.40.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MarketAxess stock opened at $164.12 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.64, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.93. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.17 and a 52-week high of $232.84. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $175.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a current ratio of 2.80.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released 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 prior year, the firm earned $1.73 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend 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.