Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Cuts Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lowered its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 201 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,812,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 179.5% during the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 13,900.0% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth $47,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on MKTX shares. UBS Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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. 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 dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $213.42 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $8.04 billion, a PE ratio of 29.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50 day moving average is $207.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $239.79. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 1.42%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 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.