Guardian Partners Inc. Decreases Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Guardian Partners Inc. trimmed its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 87.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,715 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 11,885 shares during the quarter. Guardian Partners Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $373,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Comerica Bank lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 5,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,121,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in MarketAxess by 49.1% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming lifted its position in MarketAxess by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 483 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 13.0% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 19.6% during the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 446 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $97,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $212.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $228.09.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $187.17 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.88. The business’s 50 day moving average is $200.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $210.72. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $178.20 and a twelve month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $219.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.05 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 51.18%.

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.