Teacher Retirement System of Texas Takes Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 29,244 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $6,327,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.08% of MarketAxess 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. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in MarketAxess by 495.2% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 363,224 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $82,103,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 98.4% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 754 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 374 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in MarketAxess by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 1,273 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $288,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in MarketAxess by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 10,964 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,478,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

MarketAxess Stock Up 1.1%

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $221.68 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a PE ratio of 38.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.85. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $221.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $215.92.

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

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. MarketAxess's payout ratio is 52.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. William Blair started coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Friday, April 4th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. Barclays increased their price target on MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup increased their price target on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $241.78.

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.

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