Norges Bank Purchases New Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 526,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $119,095,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MKTX. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,088,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 363,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,103,000 after purchasing an additional 5,153 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH grew its position in MarketAxess by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 8,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 1,256 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at $539,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at about $46,079,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MKTX. Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $216.35 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $207.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $238.66.

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

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.41%. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

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.