Polen Capital Management LLC Has $985,000 Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Polen Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 49.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,312 shares during the quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $985,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 22.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,265,000 after purchasing an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at about $266,000. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 2,192 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $562,000 after buying an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,342,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group reduced 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. Finally, Barclays cut their target price 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.2 %

MarketAxess stock opened at $212.38 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $208.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $241.33. The stock has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

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