Schroder Investment Management Group Grows Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 92,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,057 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group owned approximately 0.24% of MarketAxess worth $20,758,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,088,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 363,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,103,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153 shares during the period. Keybank National Association OH raised its stake in MarketAxess by 18.2% in the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 8,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth about $539,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth about $46,079,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Down 2.4 %

MKTX stock opened at $210.83 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.84 and a 52-week high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $7.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $207.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $238.18.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. On average, analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 41.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of 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 cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note 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 for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. 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 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $255.44.

MarketAxess Company 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.