Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Buys 54,503 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 10.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 581,484 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,503 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $95,933,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $463,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in MarketAxess by 5,086.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,373,000 after buying an additional 932,687 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP lifted its position 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 buying an additional 697,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $91,324,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of MKTX opened at $125.73 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.86, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $119.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.77. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $108.75 and a twelve month high of $210.94.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The company’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 company earned $1.87 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Bank of America raised shares of MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $170.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $163.18.

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.