Van ECK Associates Corp Trims Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Van ECK Associates Corp reduced its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 25.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 924,617 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 314,668 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 2.63% of MarketAxess worth $104,935,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of MKTX. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $614,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.7% in the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $939,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.0% during the first quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 7,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,368,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 200.0% in 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 period. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 7,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,302,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $162.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $136.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $150.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The firm had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $216.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.00 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 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%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $167.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. William Blair downgraded shares of MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.10.

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.