Baird Financial Group Inc. Has $49.51 Million Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. by 7.5%, acquiring an additional 15,921 shares, resulting in a total of 228,856 shares worth approximately $49.5 million.
• MarketAxess recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.76 per share, representing an annualized yield of 1.7%, with the ex-dividend date set for August 20th.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on MarketAxess, with five declaring a "Buy," six a "Hold," and one a "Sell," while consensus target prices range around $228.09.

Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 7.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 228,856 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 15,921 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.61% of MarketAxess worth $49,513,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 49.1% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 57.4% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 222 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the first quarter worth approximately $56,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter worth $65,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 173.0% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $228.09.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX traded down $1.73 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $179.86. 403,237 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 594,009. The company has a market cap of $6.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.88. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $202.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $210.62. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $178.20 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.06. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%.The business had revenue of $219.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. MarketAxess's revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. MarketAxess's payout ratio is currently 51.18%.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.