Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Sells 39,977 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 74.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 39,977 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,467,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 444.2% during the third quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,638,000 after acquiring an additional 31,093 shares during the period. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $3,361,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 305.3% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 46,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,449,000 after acquiring an additional 35,056 shares during the period. ING Groep NV lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 655.2% during the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 13,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,387,000 after acquiring an additional 11,886 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 163.1% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 12,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,280,000 after acquiring an additional 7,798 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on MKTX. Argus lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods began coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $190.88.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $116.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.14 billion, a PE ratio of 13.77, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $150.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $113.29 and a 1 year high of $228.16.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The business’s revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.87 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 36.88%.

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.