20,252 Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Purchased by FJ Capital Management LLC

FJ Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 20,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,671,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 31,093 shares in the last quarter. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,361,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $8,449,000 after acquiring an additional 35,056 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 66.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $388,681,000 after acquiring an additional 891,303 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 163.1% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 12,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,280,000 after acquiring an additional 7,798 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on MKTX shares. Argus downgraded MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price for the company. Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded 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, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $183.10.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX opened at $120.89 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $147.78 and its 200-day moving average is $165.33. The stock has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $113.29 and a twelve month high of $228.16.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $233.38 million for 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 business’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 posted $1.87 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 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.