Alberta Investment Management Corp Takes $3.68 Million Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 16,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,684,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 65.6% in the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 16,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,781,000 after buying an additional 6,625 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,863,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,211,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 230.4% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $71,103,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased 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. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. 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 dropped their price objective 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $189.81 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.02. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $188.57 and a 52-week high of $296.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $217.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.93.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. On average, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors 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 boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 40.72%.

MarketAxess 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.