Oxford Wealth Group LLC Buys Shares of 1,540 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Oxford Wealth Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,540 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $338,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 2,425,897 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $531,878,000 after acquiring an additional 564,820 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $128,535,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,657,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $363,508,000 after acquiring an additional 290,347 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 40.0% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 716,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $157,134,000 after acquiring an additional 204,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 7,385.0% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 159,580 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $46,733,000 after acquiring an additional 157,448 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.48, for a total value of $99,740.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,034,895.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $230.00 to $225.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $278.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $199.00 price target for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $241.00.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX traded up $0.79 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $224.02. 218,513 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 421,835. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.49 billion, a PE ratio of 32.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.99 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $206.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $216.49. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $210.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.99 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.83% and a return on equity of 20.82%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.96 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 22nd were issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 21st. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.47%.

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.