172,799 Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Bought by Freestone Grove Partners LP

Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 172,799 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $19,611,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 215.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, William Blair lowered MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.10.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $162.46 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $135.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $150.74. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $108.75 and a 52 week high of $195.96. The stock has a market cap of $5.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.16, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The company had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $216.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.00 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be given a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 36.79%.

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.