Heartland Advisors Inc. Acquires 29,913 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Heartland Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 105.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 58,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 29,913 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $9,624,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first 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. Activest Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 111.6% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.5%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $113.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $108.75 and a 1-year high of $214.98. The company has a 50-day moving average of $123.23 and a 200 day moving average of $155.45. The firm has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a PE ratio of 13.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.88.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The business had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.87 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective for the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, June 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $163.18.

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.