Heartland Advisors Inc. Boosts Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• Heartland Advisors more than doubled its stake in MarketAxess in the first quarter, buying an additional 29,913 shares to bring its total holdings to 58,334 shares, worth about $9.62 million.
• Other institutional investors also made small additions to MarketAxess, and the stock remains heavily institutionally owned at 99.01%.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed to cautious: several firms cut price targets recently, and the stock’s consensus rating is “Hold” with an average target price of $163.18, while shares were trading near $113.80.

Heartland Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 105.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 58,334 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 29,913 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. owned about 0.17% of MarketAxess worth $9,624,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st 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 last quarter. Activest Wealth Management bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 280 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 111.6% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 311 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of 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 reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $195.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings cut MarketAxess from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, June 12th. Three equities 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $163.18.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $113.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $108.75 and a one year high of $214.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $123.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $155.45.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The company had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $231.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.87 EPS. MarketAxess's revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.94 EPS for the current year.

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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