Woodline Partners LP Takes $512,000 Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,264 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $512,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 179.5% during the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Allianz SE purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13,900.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 185.7% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 160 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. William Blair began coverage on MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX traded up $1.30 during trading on Friday, reaching $215.37. The stock had a trading volume of 1,175,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 501,427. The stock has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a PE ratio of 29.62, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $218.01 and a 200-day moving average of $221.21.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last released 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. The business had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. The firm's revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.92 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.41%. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.