Paralel Advisors LLC Invests $1.59 Million in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Paralel Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 14,039 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,593,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 803.9% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 258,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,682,000 after purchasing an additional 230,087 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 638.7% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 21,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,472,000 after buying an additional 18,165 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 32.4% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 263,858 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,531,000 after buying an additional 64,627 shares during the last quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 523.8% during the first quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 104,174 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,187,000 after buying an additional 87,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 10.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 581,484 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $95,933,000 after buying an additional 54,503 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $161.90 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $131.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.76. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $108.75 and a 1 year high of $195.96. The stock has a market cap of $5.70 billion, a PE ratio of 19.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 35.22%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. William Blair lowered MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.10.

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.