Morningstar Investment Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Morningstar Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 93.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,602 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 21,405 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $264,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 169.0% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $463,655,000 after buying an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $575,546,000 after acquiring an additional 944,830 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,373,000 after acquiring an additional 932,687 shares in the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $291,691,000 after acquiring an additional 697,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth $91,324,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $116.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $108.75 and a 52-week high of $214.42. The company has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a PE ratio of 13.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.88. The business’s fifty day moving average is $120.55 and its 200 day moving average is $152.91.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The business had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.87 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on MarketAxess from $170.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $163.18.

MarketAxess Company 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.