MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc.

Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. cut its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 101 shares during the period. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $334,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 179.5% in the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 495.2% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 13,900.0% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth $47,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group decreased 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. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on 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, Barclays decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Trading Up 2.3 %

MarketAxess stock opened at $217.33 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $208.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $241.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 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.