Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Buys Shares of 557 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. bought a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $126,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. lifted its stake 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 valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Allianz SE bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 185.7% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 160 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $213.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $241.78.

MarketAxess Stock Up 1.2%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $216.01 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $217.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $225.41. The firm has a market cap of $8.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.71, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.84 and a 52-week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. MarketAxess’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.92 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.41%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.