Ancora Advisors LLC Acquires 996 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Ancora Advisors LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 62.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,591 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 996 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $586,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 73.7% in the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 1,589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $359,000 after purchasing an additional 674 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new position in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $2,160,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at $698,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 22,906 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,178,000 after buying an additional 4,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 526.9% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 94,205 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,294,000 after acquiring an additional 79,178 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. William Blair started coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Friday, April 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.11.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $226.80 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.84 and a 52-week high of $296.68. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $213.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $229.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.