Ieq Capital LLC Makes New Investment in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 16,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,832,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter worth about $453,941,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 169.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $463,655,000 after buying an additional 1,607,009 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $575,546,000 after buying an additional 944,830 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,373,000 after acquiring an additional 932,687 shares during the period. Finally, North Reef Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 76.6% during the 4th quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $291,691,000 after acquiring an additional 697,972 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $162.50 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $133.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $150.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a market cap of $5.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $108.75 and a 52-week high of $195.96.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. The business 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.00 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen cut MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report 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. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.10.

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.