The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Purchases New Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 9,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,120,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 1.9% in the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $614,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $939,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 1.0% during the first quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 7,884 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,368,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 7,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,302,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, UBS Group lowered MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a report on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.10.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.0%

MKTX opened at $163.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.75 billion, a PE ratio of 19.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $108.75 and a one year high of $195.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.85. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $141.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $150.34.

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

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

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

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.