MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Bought by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 65.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 104,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,573 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $17,290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $463,655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $575,546,000 after acquiring an additional 944,830 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,373,000 after purchasing an additional 932,687 shares in the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its stake in MarketAxess by 76.6% in the 4th quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $291,691,000 after purchasing an additional 697,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $91,324,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $112.51 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $108.75 and a 1-year high of $225.07. The stock has a market cap of $4.00 billion, a PE ratio of 13.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $136.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $162.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The company’s revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.87 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MKTX. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 target price on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $183.10.

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.