Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Makes New Investment in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $126,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth about $119,095,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $520,013,000 after acquiring an additional 341,493 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth about $71,103,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in MarketAxess by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $519,533,000 after acquiring an additional 236,118 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX opened at $216.01 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $217.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $225.41. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $8.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results 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. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.92 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

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 issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MKTX. UBS Group reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. William Blair began coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $241.78.

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.