Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Acquires 5,374 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 311.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 7,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,374 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,237,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 393.0% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 98,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,948,000 after buying an additional 78,336 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 19,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,334,000 after acquiring an additional 2,784 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 190.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 3,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $682,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036 shares during the period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 238.1% during the second quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,888 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 2,738 shares during the period. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $866,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $172.48 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $173.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $181.42. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $208.82 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.59 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.20% and a net margin of 26.16%.The business’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Barclays decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $188.00 to $182.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research upgraded MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $201.64.

About MarketAxess

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.