Arizona State Retirement System Boosts Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,478,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,088,000. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter worth about $1,966,000. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $982,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $12,200,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 22.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,265,000 after purchasing an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Up 1.7 %

MKTX opened at $212.57 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $209.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $242.22. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. Research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.82%.

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.