104,926 Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Purchased by Heartland Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• Heartland Advisors purchased 104,926 MarketAxess shares worth approximately $11.9 million, giving it a 0.30% stake. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 99.01% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is largely cautious: MarketAxess has a consensus “Hold” rating from 13 analysts, with a target price of $156.10 after several firms reduced their forecasts.
• MarketAxess exceeded quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $1.95 in EPS and $218.41 million in revenue, while revenue declined 0.5% year over year. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share, representing a 1.9% annualized yield.

Heartland Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 104,926 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $11,908,000. Heartland Advisors Inc. owned 0.30% of MarketAxess at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $453,941,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $463,655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607,009 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% during 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 during the period. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $172,373,000 after purchasing an additional 932,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Reef Capital Management LP raised its holdings in 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 worth $291,691,000 after purchasing an additional 697,972 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their target price on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. William Blair downgraded MarketAxess from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $156.10.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $162.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The firm's 50 day moving average is $132.01 and its 200-day moving average is $150.84. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $108.75 and a 12-month high of $195.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The business's quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.00 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

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

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.

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