11,756 Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Acquired by Generali Asset Management SPA SGR

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 11,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,657,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after buying an additional 236,497 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after buying an additional 291,134 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,472,000 after buying an additional 30,180 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 14.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $275,122,000 after buying an additional 139,949 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 440,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $99,669,000 after buying an additional 11,291 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $216.75 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $207.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $240.78. The firm has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.81, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.84 and a 1 year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. As a group, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group cut their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.