South Dakota Investment Council Buys 150 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

South Dakota Investment Council raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 37.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 150 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $124,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 17.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after buying an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,032,000 after buying an additional 8,042 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 14.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $275,122,000 after buying an additional 139,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 42.1% during the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 393,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,911,000 after buying an additional 116,607 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MKTX. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report 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 note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $194.26 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $215.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $244.65. The company has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.02.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. Equities research analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. 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 yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.82%.

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.