MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Holdings Lifted by Pallas Capital Advisors LLC

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 298.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,203 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position 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 valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake 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 during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter worth approximately $406,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.6%

MKTX stock opened at $164.12 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.64, a P/E/G 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $173.94.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 46.85%.

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.