Virtu Financial LLC Buys 722 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Virtu Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 22.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,985 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 722 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $901,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MKTX. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at about $71,103,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake 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 valued at $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,079,000. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,967,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. 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. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $211.78 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.13, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $207.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $240.10.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.