Raymond James Financial Inc. Makes New $46.08 Million Investment in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 203,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $46,079,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,265,000 after acquiring an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 160.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $266,000. Cumberland Partners Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $512,000. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 15,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,926,000 after buying an additional 3,121 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $209.96 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.88, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $209.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $242.06. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.82%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on MKTX. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $254.78.

About MarketAxess

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.