Ieq Capital LLC Has $34.32 Million Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 479.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 189,326 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 156,664 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $34,315,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised 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 buying an additional 1,614 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,000 after buying an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 3,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $689,000 after buying an additional 921 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth $406,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MKTX shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings cut MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Argus cut MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Barclays lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.10.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $120.89 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $113.29 and a 12-month high of $228.16. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $147.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $165.33. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.29, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.86.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The business had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.87 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.88%.

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.