AGF Management Ltd. Acquires Shares of 9,796 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

AGF Management Ltd. purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,796 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,214,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth about $1,088,000. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,966,000. Keybank National Association OH increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 18.2% during the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 8,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 363,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,103,000 after buying an additional 5,153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth approximately $539,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of MKTX opened at $212.38 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $208.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $241.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.84 and a 12-month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its 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%. Analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. MarketAxess’s dividend 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.