Inspire Advisors LLC Invests $703,000 in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Key Points

• Inspire Advisors LLC acquired 3,250 shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTX), worth approximately $703,000, in Q1 2023.
• MarketAxess reported $1.87 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding expectations but showed a 0.8% decline in revenue compared to the previous year.
• Hedge funds and institutional investors own 99.01% of MarketAxess stock, highlighting strong institutional interest in the company.

Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,250 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $703,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 1,335 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $289,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $300,000. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $332,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 54.6% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,166 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $252,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 178.4% during the 1st quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 3,948 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $854,000 after acquiring an additional 2,530 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on MKTX shares. William Blair started coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Friday, April 4th. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut MarketAxess from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Sunday, July 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $295.00 price target on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $240.67.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX traded down $3.03 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $207.07. 126,820 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 576,093. The company has a market cap of $7.76 billion, a PE ratio of 36.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.84 and a 52-week high of $296.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $218.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $214.61.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 19.93% and a net margin of 26.57%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.92 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess 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.