Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd Buys Shares of 280 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $63,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,693,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in MarketAxess by 5.6% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,804 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $718,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the third quarter worth approximately $614,000. Centiva Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter worth $332,000. Finally, Investment Management Corp of Ontario purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at $308,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on MKTX. UBS Group dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. 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 research report on Wednesday. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $255.44.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $212.94 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.29, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $206.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.71. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.43%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.82%.

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.