Legal & General Group Plc Buys Shares of 84,460 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 84,460 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,585,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.24% of MarketAxess at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $575,546,000 after buying an additional 944,830 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 169.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $463,655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607,009 shares in the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its position in MarketAxess by 16.5% during the first quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,875,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,338,000 after acquiring an additional 265,670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 4.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after acquiring an additional 67,290 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.0%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $162.65 on Wednesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $108.75 and a 12 month high of $195.96. The firm has a market cap of $5.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18, 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. The company’s 50 day moving average is $137.94 and its 200-day moving average is $150.47.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.00 EPS. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group lowered shares of 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. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. William Blair cut shares of MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, August 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.10.

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.