ProShare Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 39.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,096 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,848 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,282,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 16.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 140,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,063,000 after purchasing an additional 19,962 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 47.6% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 1,503 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $340,000 after buying an additional 485 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 30.0% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,135 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $709,000 after purchasing an additional 724 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 139.7% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,257,000 after acquiring an additional 3,240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Place Capital Corp acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the topic of several recent research reports. William Blair started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $213.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $222.69 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $8.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $217.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $224.47.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. MarketAxess’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.92 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 52.87%.

About MarketAxess

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.