RDST Capital LLC Acquires Shares of 247,112 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

RDST Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 247,112 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $28,045,000. MarketAxess accounts for about 2.3% of RDST Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth $453,941,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 169.0% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $463,655,000 after buying an additional 1,607,009 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in MarketAxess by 42.4% during the 4th 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 during the period. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,373,000 after buying an additional 932,687 shares during the period. Finally, North Reef Capital Management LP grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 76.6% in 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. William Blair downgraded MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $156.10.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $162.46 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $108.75 and a 1 year high of $195.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day moving average is $132.84 and its 200 day moving average is $150.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The business had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $216.70 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.00 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

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

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.