National Bank of Canada FI Increases Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 36.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,692 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,932 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 0.08% of MarketAxess worth $6,424,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 11.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 236,118 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in MarketAxess by 25,960.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 183,465 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $39,693,000 after purchasing an additional 182,761 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 285.6% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 186,569 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $40,364,000 after purchasing an additional 138,191 shares during the period. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its stake in MarketAxess by 69.6% during the 4th quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 271,318 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $61,329,000 after purchasing an additional 111,318 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in MarketAxess by 55.2% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 232,934 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $52,640,000 after purchasing an additional 82,860 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock traded down $2.02 on Monday, reaching $188.02. The company had a trading volume of 114,134 shares, compared to its average volume of 589,497. The firm has a market cap of $7.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.84. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $212.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $212.23. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $182.99 and a 1 year high of $296.68.

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

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is presently 51.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays cut their price target on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $229.70.

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.