Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 90,805 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 90,805 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.76% of MarketAxess worth $1,002,475,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. increased its position in MarketAxess by 179.5% during the 4th quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 13,900.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $216.75 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $207.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $239.19. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.84 and a 52-week high of $296.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a PE 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS 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 dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.82%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. 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. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

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.