MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Position Cut by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd lessened its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 19,296 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,191 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $4,362,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Hawaiian Bank acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth about $1,088,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 363,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $82,103,000 after acquiring an additional 5,153 shares during the period. Keybank National Association OH boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 18.2% in the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 8,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $539,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,079,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $216.75 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $207.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $238.95. The stock has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 29.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two 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 for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.82%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on 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 lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target 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. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess 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.