Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Boosts Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

by · The Markets Daily

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX – Free Report) by 173.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,888 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,375,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 66.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $388,681,000 after buying an additional 891,303 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in MarketAxess by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after purchasing an additional 67,290 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,141,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,460,000 after purchasing an additional 6,448 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 485.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $167,195,000 after purchasing an additional 628,954 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at $114,593,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on MKTX. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Argus lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $200.40.

View Our Latest Analysis on MKTX

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $184.44 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a current ratio of 2.80. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $176.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.16.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $209.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.06 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.73 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a $0.78 dividend. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.85%.

About MarketAxess

(Free Report)

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.

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