MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Bought by Atria Investments Inc

Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 11.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,273 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at $1,088,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in MarketAxess by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 363,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,103,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,966,000. Keybank National Association OH increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 8,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $539,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays dropped 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. Piper Sandler cut their price target on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price 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. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target 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 equities research 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 company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $217.33 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.84 and a 12-month high of $296.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $208.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $241.12. The firm has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

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.