Quantbot Technologies LP Takes $3.21 Million Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 14,199 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,210,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 179.5% in the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13,900.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on MKTX shares. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $216.87 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $207.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $240.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 41.82%.

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.