Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan Purchases New Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $81,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Walleye Capital LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 2,755.5% in the fourth quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 102,427 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $23,153,000 after buying an additional 98,840 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth $289,000. Mariner LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 2,941 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $665,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the period. Optimize Financial Inc acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $282,000. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $1,852,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price 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 boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $220.00 to $213.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.11.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MarketAxess stock opened at $225.16 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $206.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $234.77. The company has a market capitalization of $8.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.97, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. On average, analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS 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 issued a $0.76 dividend. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 41.82%.

MarketAxess 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.