Janus Henderson Group PLC Purchases 40,501 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 1,262.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 43,710 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 40,501 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned approximately 0.12% of MarketAxess worth $9,880,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after purchasing an additional 90,805 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $520,013,000 after acquiring an additional 341,493 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $519,533,000 after purchasing an additional 236,118 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in MarketAxess by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $309,472,000 after buying an additional 30,180 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock traded up $3.27 on Tuesday, reaching $222.69. 512,737 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 499,093. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The firm's 50-day moving average is $217.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $224.48. The company has a market capitalization of $8.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.92 EPS. On average, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. MarketAxess's payout ratio 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.