Ashford Capital Management Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Ashford Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 81.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 7,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 34,935 shares during the period. Ashford Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,694,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in MarketAxess by 49.1% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 57.4% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 222 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 173.0% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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. Citigroup lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Argus raised shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $212.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $228.09.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.7%

MKTX opened at $183.84 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $205.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $210.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $182.15 and a 12-month high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $6.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.95, a PEG ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 0.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $219.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.05 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%.MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.18%.

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.