MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Acquired by Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A.

Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 34.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 39,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,063 shares during the period. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $6,495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $575,546,000 after acquiring an additional 944,830 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $463,655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607,009 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in MarketAxess by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $339,549,000 after purchasing an additional 119,036 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP lifted its position in MarketAxess by 76.6% in the 4th quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $291,691,000 after purchasing an additional 697,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after buying an additional 67,290 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $178.27.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $116.53 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $108.75 and a 12 month high of $222.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a PE ratio of 13.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $132.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $160.36.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 36.88%.

About MarketAxess

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.