Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Grows Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 27.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,079 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,011,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in MarketAxess by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 202,234 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $59,229,000 after purchasing an additional 5,475 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 80.9% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,338 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $978,000 after buying an additional 1,493 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG lifted its position in MarketAxess by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 79,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,343,000 after buying an additional 3,588 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 156,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,783,000 after buying an additional 6,135 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 124.3% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,070 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $899,000 after acquiring an additional 1,701 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $238.60.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $257.49 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $238.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $218.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $192.42 and a one year high of $297.97. The firm has a market cap of $9.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.81, a P/E/G ratio of 5.99 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 2.91 and a current ratio of 2.91.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.04. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 33.71%. The company had revenue of $197.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 43.47%.

MarketAxess declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, August 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.63, for a total value of $142,915.71. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,716,146.67. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.