Wealthfront Advisers LLC Invests $631,000 in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,853 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $631,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth approximately $71,103,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,079,000. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,967,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. 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 report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $212.38 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $208.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $241.33.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, 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 was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend 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.