Savant Capital LLC Has $720,000 Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Savant Capital LLC lowered its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 96.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 4,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 125,561 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $720,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 393.0% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 98,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,948,000 after acquiring an additional 78,336 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in MarketAxess by 16.4% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 19,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,334,000 after purchasing an additional 2,784 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. grew its stake in MarketAxess by 190.6% during the second quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 3,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $682,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter worth approximately $866,000. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 238.1% in the second quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,888 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $868,000 after buying an additional 2,738 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. Argus dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.40.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $178.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 3.42 and a quick ratio of 2.60. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $156.17 and a one year high of $232.84. The company has a market cap of $6.65 billion, a PE ratio of 26.84, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $174.33 and a 200-day moving average of $176.57.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.06 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.73 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 46.85%.

MarketAxess Profile

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.