Redwood Investment Management LLC Makes New Investment in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• Redwood Investment Management initiated a 6,262-share position in MarketAxess valued at approximately $1.03 million. Institutional ownership remains high at 99.01%, with several other funds also increasing their stakes.
• Analysts have broadly moderated their outlook: MarketAxess carries a consensus “Hold” rating and a $160.18 average price target, while several firms recently cut targets to roughly $129–$132.
• MarketAxess beat quarterly earnings expectations with EPS of $1.95 versus $1.85 forecast and revenue of $218 million, though revenue declined 0.5% year over year. The company also announced a $0.78 quarterly dividend, equivalent to a 1.9% annualized yield.

Redwood Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,262 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,033,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 58.6% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 444 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in MarketAxess by 415.4% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,474 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,068,000 after buying an additional 5,218 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in MarketAxess by 32.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 263,858 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $43,531,000 after buying an additional 64,627 shares during the last quarter. Bull Harbor Capital LLC purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the first quarter valued at about $1,052,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 803.9% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 258,708 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $42,682,000 after acquiring an additional 230,087 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of MarketAxess from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $195.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $170.00 to $132.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $160.18.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $162.28 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $108.75 and a twelve month high of $210.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a PE ratio of 19.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.05 and a beta of 0.83. The company's 50 day moving average is $120.99 and its 200 day moving average is $151.62.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $218.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The business's quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.00 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.03 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is currently 36.79%.

MarketAxess Profile

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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