Prana Capital Management LP Increases Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Prana Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 613.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,522 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 28,821 shares during the quarter. Prana Capital Management LP owned 0.09% of MarketAxess worth $7,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup increased their price target on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $213.00 to $202.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, William Blair initiated coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Friday, April 4th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $241.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX traded up $2.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $221.62. The stock had a trading volume of 158,369 shares, compared to its average volume of 654,742. The stock has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.46, 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's 50 day moving average is $217.60 and its 200 day moving average is $224.48.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $208.58 million for 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 firm's revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.92 EPS. Equities analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

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 $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is 52.87%.

MarketAxess 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.