Legal & General Group Plc Invests $9.59 Million in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 84,460 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,585,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MKTX. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in MarketAxess by 151.0% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 3,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $689,000 after purchasing an additional 921 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $406,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, UBS Group lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $156.10.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $162.65 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $137.94 and a 200-day moving average of $150.47. The stock has a market cap of $5.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $108.75 and a 52-week high of $195.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.85.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.00 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.79%.

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.