MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Acquired by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 1,422.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 62,933 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 58,800 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.17% of MarketAxess worth $14,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $119,095,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $520,013,000 after buying an additional 341,493 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $71,103,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $452,246,000 after buying an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 11.4% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 236,118 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Friday, April 4th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock traded down $2.31 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $210.82. 791,209 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 499,000. The company has a market capitalization of $7.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $217.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $226.92.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. MarketAxess's revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.92 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.87%.

MarketAxess Company 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.