California Public Employees Retirement System Acquires 8,164 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 15.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 62,605 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,164 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $14,151,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 179.5% in the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Allianz SE bought a new position in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 495.2% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 13,900.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Place Capital Corp purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on MKTX. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $255.44.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.5 %

MKTX stock opened at $212.94 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $206.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $237.56. The stock has a market cap of $8.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.29, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. On average, equities research analysts expect 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 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.