Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ Lowers Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ reduced its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,068 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,592,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% in 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,032,000 after acquiring an additional 8,042 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $275,122,000 after acquiring an additional 139,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 440,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $99,669,000 after purchasing an additional 11,291 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on MKTX shares. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. 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 lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $217.33 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $208.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $241.12. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The company has a market capitalization of $8.19 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

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

About MarketAxess

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.