Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 22.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,296 shares during the quarter. MarketAxess accounts for approximately 1.3% of Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC owned 0.06% of MarketAxess worth $4,274,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess by 444.2% in the third quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,638,000 after acquiring an additional 31,093 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 305.3% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 46,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,449,000 after acquiring an additional 35,056 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV raised its position in MarketAxess by 655.2% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 13,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,387,000 after acquiring an additional 11,886 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 66.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,681,000 after buying an additional 891,303 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 163.1% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 12,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,280,000 after buying an additional 7,798 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on MKTX shares. Barclays cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods began coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective on the stock. Argus cut MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $190.88.

MarketAxess Trading Down 3.1%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $116.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.82, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $152.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.09. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.55 and a 52 week high of $228.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.87 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.88%.

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.