MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stake Boosted by Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 471.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 69,021 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned about 0.22% of MarketAxess worth $18,912,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth about $119,095,000. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $71,103,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in MarketAxess by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,079,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 139,949 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective 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 decreased their target price 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $255.44.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $212.94 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $206.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $237.71.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.