FJ Capital Management LLC Makes New $3.67 Million Investment in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

FJ Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 20,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,671,000. FJ Capital Management LLC owned 0.05% of MarketAxess as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $575,546,000 after buying an additional 944,830 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,373,000 after buying an additional 932,687 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 485.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $167,195,000 after buying an additional 628,954 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth $91,324,000. Finally, North Reef Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 117.0% in the 3rd quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 911,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $158,804,000 after buying an additional 491,358 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the topic of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday. UBS Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $183.10.

MarketAxess Stock Up 3.9%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $120.89 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $113.29 and a 1 year high of $228.16. The firm has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.29, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $147.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.33.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The business 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.88%.

MarketAxess Profile

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.