MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Ashford Capital Management Inc.

Ashford Capital Management Inc. trimmed its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 29.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 42,765 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 17,525 shares during the quarter. Ashford Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $9,667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after buying an additional 90,805 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $520,013,000 after acquiring an additional 341,493 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $519,533,000 after acquiring an additional 236,118 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,472,000 after acquiring an additional 30,180 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. William Blair began coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price 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. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $213.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Trading Up 1.6%

MKTX stock opened at $219.42 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $217.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $224.48. The company has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.18, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.92 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.87%.

MarketAxess Company 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.