BNP Paribas Financial Markets Reduces Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

BNP Paribas Financial Markets lowered its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 22.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 375,735 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 110,371 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in MarketAxess were worth $68,102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,323 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $579,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $614,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $939,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Finally, Alamar Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Alamar Capital Management LLC now owns 16,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,933,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. UBS Group decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Barclays decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Argus cut MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $190.88.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $129.29 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $4.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $168.51. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $128.94 and a 12-month high of $228.16. 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 (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.87 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.04 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 36.88%.

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.