Ashford Capital Management Inc. Reduces Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Ashford Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 29.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 42,765 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 17,525 shares during the period. Ashford Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.11% of MarketAxess worth $9,667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after purchasing an additional 90,805 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $520,013,000 after buying an additional 341,493 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $519,533,000 after buying an additional 236,118 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $452,246,000 after buying an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $309,472,000 after buying an additional 30,180 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MarketAxess from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $241.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MarketAxess stock traded up $1.44 during trading on Friday, reaching $217.85. The company had a trading volume of 317,874 shares, compared to its average volume of 502,917. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $217.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $223.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 29.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $186.84 and a 1-year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.92 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. MarketAxess's payout ratio is 52.87%.

About MarketAxess

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.