Nordea Investment Management AB Buys 8,771 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 316.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,546 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 8,771 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB's holdings in MarketAxess were worth $3,367,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 146.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,265,784 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $270,422,000 after acquiring an additional 752,111 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 18.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,928,679 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,537,253,000 after buying an additional 608,107 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 385.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 545,563 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $116,554,000 after buying an additional 433,217 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $110,636,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 138.8% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 627,692 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $178,810,000 after buying an additional 364,829 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In related news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total transaction of $442,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 70,092 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,508,555.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Barclays downgraded shares of MarketAxess from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $246.00 to $291.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 6th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $225.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $266.89.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ MKTX traded down $2.08 on Monday, hitting $219.62. The stock had a trading volume of 250,129 shares, compared to its average volume of 446,440. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $200.01 and a one year high of $399.78. The stock has a market cap of $8.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.98. The company's 50-day moving average is $230.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $197.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.29% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.58 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 14th were paid a $0.74 dividend. This is a positive change from MarketAxess's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 13th. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.21%.

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.