Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Takes Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 11,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,657,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position 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 during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its position 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $275,122,000 after acquiring an additional 139,949 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 440,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $99,669,000 after acquiring an additional 11,291 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $216.75 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $207.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $240.78. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $186.84 and a 1-year high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

About MarketAxess

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.