Van Den Berg Management I Inc. Increases Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• Van Den Berg Management I Inc. boosted its MarketAxess stake by 116.9% in the fourth quarter, buying 16,382 additional shares to bring its total to 30,399 shares worth about $5.51 million.
• Institutional ownership remains very high, with 99.01% of MarketAxess shares held by hedge funds and other institutional investors; several large firms also increased their positions during recent quarters.
• MarketAxess reported solid quarterly results, posting EPS of $2.25 and revenue of $233.38 million, both ahead of estimates, while also paying a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share for a 2.5% yield.

Van Den Berg Management I Inc. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 116.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,399 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 16,382 shares during the period. Van Den Berg Management I Inc. owned about 0.08% of MarketAxess worth $5,510,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% during the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $575,546,000 after buying an additional 944,830 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $339,549,000 after buying an additional 119,036 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $342,312,000 after buying an additional 67,290 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 951,088 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $165,727,000 after buying an additional 192,626 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $172,373,000 after buying an additional 932,687 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $124.81 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $145.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $164.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 0.86. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $113.29 and a one year high of $225.59.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.87 EPS. Analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is 36.88%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $195.00 price objective on the stock. Argus cut MarketAxess from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $170.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut MarketAxess from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $183.10.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MKTX? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.