Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Takes Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $292,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norden Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $539,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $513,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in MarketAxess by 23.9% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 11,115 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,512,000 after buying an additional 2,142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $296,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of 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 reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $192.79 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $212.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $243.36. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.84 and a 12-month high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.02.

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 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 predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 41.82%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.