MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Bought by Prana Capital Management LP

Prana Capital Management LP lifted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 99.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 61,323 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 30,508 shares during the quarter. Prana Capital Management LP’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $10,686,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Stance Capital LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Argus downgraded MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.40.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $179.11 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.93. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84. The company has a current ratio of 2.80, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $176.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. The firm had revenue of $209.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $214.06 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.73 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.85%.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.