MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Position Raised by Polar Asset Management Partners Inc.

Key Points

• Polar Asset Management Partners increased its MarketAxess stake by 523.8% in the first quarter, adding 87,474 shares to hold 104,174 shares valued at approximately $17.2 million. Institutional investors collectively own 99.01% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious, with nine Hold, three Buy, and one Sell rating. The average price target is $163.18, although several firms recently lowered their targets, including Morgan Stanley to $129 and Piper Sandler to $128.
• MarketAxess shares opened at $116.69, near the lower end of their 12-month range of $108.75 to $214.42. Quarterly results exceeded expectations, with EPS of $2.25 and revenue of $233.38 million, up 11.9% year over year.

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 523.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 104,174 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 87,474 shares during the period. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. owned approximately 0.29% of MarketAxess worth $17,187,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ancora Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $614,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 1.7% during the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,203 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $939,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC grew its holdings 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 holdings in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its position in MarketAxess by 1.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MKTX. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $163.18.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX stock opened at $116.69 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.88. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $108.75 and a 12 month high of $214.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $120.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $152.91.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The firm's revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal 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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