North Reef Capital Management LP Acquires 491,358 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

North Reef Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 117.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 911,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 491,358 shares during the quarter. MarketAxess comprises about 7.4% of North Reef Capital Management LP’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. North Reef Capital Management LP’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $158,804,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 66.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,230,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $388,681,000 after buying an additional 891,303 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 485.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 758,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $167,195,000 after acquiring an additional 628,954 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at about $114,593,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in MarketAxess by 469.1% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 486,106 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $84,704,000 after acquiring an additional 400,691 shares during the period. Finally, Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 67.1% during the third quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 692,216 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $127,257,000 after acquiring an additional 277,846 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Argus lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.40.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $180.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.08, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.72. The company has a current ratio of 2.80, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.17 and a 52 week high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.73 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. 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. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.85%.

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.