Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Purchases 106 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 45,418 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $10,266,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth about $71,103,000. FMR LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 17.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after purchasing an additional 291,134 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in MarketAxess by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the third quarter worth about $42,967,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 14.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $275,122,000 after purchasing an additional 139,949 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $194.09 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $7.32 billion, a PE ratio of 26.70, a PEG ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.02. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $188.88 and a 1-year high of $296.68. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $219.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 40.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.