Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Purchases Shares of 10,362 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 10,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,176,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in MarketAxess by 215.3% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. William Blair downgraded MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Bank of America upgraded shares of MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Monday, August 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.10.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $163.32 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $143.10 and a 200 day moving average of $149.95. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $108.75 and a 52-week high of $195.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a market cap of $5.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.26, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83.

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

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.79%.

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.