HighTower Advisors LLC Purchases 85 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,205 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $272,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 3.1% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,693,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,804 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $718,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth $614,000. Centiva Capital LP acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $332,000. Finally, Investment Management Corp of Ontario purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at about $308,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective 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. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Bank of America raised 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. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $255.44.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $210.83 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $207.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $238.18.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share 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%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors 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 is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.44%. 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.