Weiss Asset Management LP Purchases Shares of 7,490 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 7,490 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,236,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its stake in MarketAxess by 16.5% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 265,670 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 16.1% in the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 3,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $555,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares during the period. Van Den Berg Management I Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Van Den Berg Management I Inc. now owns 31,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,184,000 after buying an additional 1,024 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $527,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 374.5% during the first quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 145,628 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,026,000 after buying an additional 114,934 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America raised shares of MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $163.18.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $117.97 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a PE ratio of 13.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $120.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $152.46. 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 Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $108.75 and a 52-week high of $211.16.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.87 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.