NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC Has $1.18 Million Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 188.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,287 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,184,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at $38,000. Stance Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. UBS Group reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.40.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $170.66 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.17 and a 12-month high of $232.84. The business has a 50 day moving average of $176.51 and a 200-day moving average of $174.46. The company has a quick ratio of 2.80, a current ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $6.07 billion, a PE ratio of 25.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 46.85%.

MarketAxess Company 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.