Principal Securities Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 230.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 182 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $59,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,088,000. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,966,000. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $982,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,265,000 after buying an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 111.4% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 6,464 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,455,000 after buying an additional 3,407 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on MKTX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target 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. Barclays lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $191.35 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.32, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50 day moving average of $214.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $244.00. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. Analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.