Russell Investments Group Ltd. Has $5.62 Million Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 21.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,856 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,447 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.07% of MarketAxess worth $5,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in MarketAxess by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 203,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,096,000 after acquiring an additional 9,774 shares during the period. Aviva PLC increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 23,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,359 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $889,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $2,603,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $222.42 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $205.48 and a 200-day moving average of $234.93. The company has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.84 and a 1 year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 41.82%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MKTX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Barclays raised their target price on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.11.

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.