Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Buys New Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 186,658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $21,184,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. owned about 0.53% of MarketAxess at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in MarketAxess by 200.0% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in MarketAxess by 215.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $167.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.10.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $162.50 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $133.60 and a 200 day moving average of $150.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $108.75 and a 1-year high of $195.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.72 billion, a PE ratio of 19.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 35.22%.The business had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $216.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.00 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.79%.

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.