Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Invests $21.18 Million in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 186,658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $21,184,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MKTX. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $575,546,000 after buying an additional 944,830 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 buying an additional 1,607,009 shares during the period. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 16.5% during the first quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,875,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,338,000 after acquiring an additional 265,670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after acquiring an additional 67,290 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $162.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.72 billion, a PE ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $133.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $150.75.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 35.22%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.00 EPS. Analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group cut MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.10.

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.