MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Bought by Optimize Financial Inc

by · The Markets Daily

Optimize Financial Inc boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX – Free Report) by 53.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,912 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 664 shares during the period. Optimize Financial Inc’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $414,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its position in MarketAxess by 49.1% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in MarketAxess by 57.4% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 222 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the first quarter worth $56,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the first quarter worth $65,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 173.0% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Argus upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $212.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $228.09.

View Our Latest Research Report on MarketAxess

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.2%

MarketAxess stock opened at $187.17 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $178.20 and a 12-month high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $6.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.51, a PEG ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $200.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.72.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.06. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.62% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $219.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $218.05 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.72 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.18%.

About MarketAxess

(Free Report)

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.

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